Youth Center – Wikipedia

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Logo of the Association of Youth Centers

And Youth center or Child and youth protection center is a Quebec government institution (Canada) which helps young people in difficulty. Young people can be welcomed in a youth center from birth and this until their majority under the order of the Court [Which ?] .

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The Youth Center have a mission of protection (Youth Protection Act (Quebec), LPJ) of minor children, with regard to negligence, physical abuses, sexual abuses or abandonment they could be victims, as well as a rehabilitation mission of young offenders who committed an offense (law on the criminal justice system for adolescents, LSJPA). They are responsible for providing second -line services, psychosocial services, rehabilitation and social integration to young people, their families, as well as to mothers in difficulty. There are seventeen youth centers distributed in the administrative regions of Quebec.

In the sense of Health and Social Services Act , the youth centers manage, under the authority of the same board of directors, the following establishments: a Center for the Protection of Children and Youth (CPEJ), one or more rehabilitation centers for young people in difficulty ‘Adaptation (CRJD) and a rehabilitation center for mothers in adaptation difficulty (CRMDA).

Their services are governed by the Health and Social Services Act , the Youth Protection Act , the Criminal justice law law for adolescents and the Quebec Civil Code.

The Youth Protection Act Supervise protection and rehabilitation services for children and adolescents, adoption and research services of biological history and mediation and expertise services. There Criminal justice law law for adolescents concerns young offenders (12-17 years old) having committed an offense to the Criminal Code or another federal law. There Health and Social Services Act Supervise social services to children, mothers and families in difficulty. The specialized aid of youth centers defined by this legal framework, is intended for clienteles struggling with serious difficulties.

Before merging under the same administration, the institutions dispensing for these services collaborated, while having distinct historical journeys.

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In the rest of the reforms of the Quiet Revolution (1960-1970), the establishment of the public health, free and universal system, has made social services accessible which had previously been essentially provided by religious communities and caritative organizations .

The new social service centers have taken charge of children and families who benefited from services for reasons of abandonment, poverty, etc. They resumed children’s placement measures by consolidating a network of host families. In the 1970s, it was quite unanimously emerged that social services were badly joined children in danger and families with the heaviest issues. In 1979, the start of the application of Youth Protection Act (LPJ) and the creation of the Directorate of Youth Protection (DPJ) implied that the central mandate of psychosocial services in CSS, and now in youth centers, became the protection of youth. Without stating all the legal reasons for minors in need of protection, (see: youth protection law) These are essentially young abandoned, neglected, victims of physical or sexual abuse or presenting serious disorders of behavior behavior and adaptation. Following a reported report, when after investigation, protection reasons are established, situations may be processed by voluntary agreements or by using a judicial decision of a Youth Chamber.

Rehabilitation centers – which was called at the time of reception center – came from orphanages existing in Quebec in the 1950s. On the other hand, Quebec has always resisted a treatment that is similar to that Adults for its young offenders, these centers which were autonomous establishments, had developed rehabilitation techniques for young people who have committed crimes and the subject of judicial sentences. Juvenile crime is of federal jurisdiction. However, since 1979, it is to the Director of Youth Protection also appointed Provincial Director, that the young people are noted, the crimes whose crimes are not judicial by the crown prosecutor or for Production of pre -divisional reports. It is also the DPJ which is mandated for the execution of the orders issued (probation and warning) according to the law on young offenders and now according to the law on the criminal justice system for adolescents.

In the 1980s, following the “Operation 30,000” study, counting so many children placed in foster family or in a reception center in Quebec, with the concern of institutionalizing minors as possible as possible who were entrusted to them, the rehabilitation center developed group homes, which are accommodation and supervisory resources in the community. In the same aim, the services of street educators or in a family environment have become more and more accessible. The merger of establishments has led to better complementarity of psychosocial and rehabilitation mandates.

With the significant increase in the number of young girls or women alone with their child, rehabilitation centers for mothers in serious difficulty of adaptation, during pregnancy or during the development of the first years of their child (0-5 years) , aims to promote the involvement of the spouse and the extended family environment to maintain the child in his environment, while promoting the social integration of the mother and her parental role. The integration of these services with those of youth protection, in the same organization, is favorable to their respective social mandates.

The Youth Protection Department is integrated into youth centers. In addition to the protection services, it is also responsible, via the adoption service, for the evaluation of families who want to adopt a child. In consultation with the Superior Court, responsible for ruling on childcare issues or access rights in family situations of divorce or separation. The Expertise and Family Mediation Service responds to the Court’s requests by producing psychular expertise on the measures to be taken in the best interests of the child.

Youth centers work in collaboration with the CLSC network, primary and secondary education establishments, early childhood centers and community organizations. More than 8,000 stakeholders are employed by youth centers. A majority of them have the job of human relations agents. The latter are trained in the disciplines of social work, psychoeducation, criminology and psychology.

Youth centers are research and education circles affiliated to various higher education establishments in Quebec.

  • The Montreal youth center is designated University institute in the field of violence among young people
  • The Quebec Youth Center is appointed University Institute on young people in difficulty.
  • “Health and social services law”, Government of Quebec.
  • “Youth Protection Act”, Government of Quebec.
  • “Law on the criminal justice system for adolescents”, Government of Canada.

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