Extended Family partners with Juvenile Diversion Programs to provide students with Extended Family for Kids (EFK) and Extended Family Leadership Academy (EFLA) across Alabama. Juvenile Diversion Programs are designed to help set children back on a positive path, to “divert” these children away from a path of destructive choices and behaviors to more positive options which can lead them to lives as successful adults, spouses, parents, employees, and members of their communities.
Extended Family staff lead programs in Cherokee County (STAR), DeKalb County (DeKalb Youth Services Center), Etowah County (SPAN), and Calhoun County (Success Academy and Coosa Valley Youth Services), and, most recently for the first time, in Autauga County for Alabama Department of Youth Services. Program Leaders spent two weeks providing Extended Family Leadership Academy to the young men in residence, teaching them how to make healthy choices to improve their quality of life with lessons focused on job readiness, health (including healthy relationships), effective communication, and financial independence.
In addition to children involved in these programs being identified as at-risk or CHINS (children in need of services), Extended Family has found through our own surveys that more than 90% of students in juvenile diversion programs have a loved one who is incarcerated. EFK and EFLA are designed to help break the generational cycle of incarceration in families.
Extended Family is proud to be a part of this second chance for kids. Our goal is to offer them the extra support they need to be successful through our motto, “Lead yourself.” For more information about Extended Family and our programs, visit our website, www.extendedfamilyhelp.org and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram @extendedfamilyhelp. Additional information regarding Juvenile Diversion Programs is available at dys.alabama.gov. We are working every day to change one life, because it is never just one life.