FOR IMMEDIATE RELEAS

Contact: Jim Lavender, Construction & Design

(941) 479-8301

COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT CENTER TO SERVE NEEDS OF JUVENILES/FAMILIES

FORT MYERS, Fla. (July 11, 2000) – Lee County government and criminal justice officials will begin construction Thursday (July 13) on a Community Assessment Center (CAC) that will serve at‑risk and delinquent youth and their families.

The groundbreaking ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Heitman Street, where the center will be located just off of the Lee County Justice Complex.

The $2.5-million, 8,707-square-foot facility is part of a $4.5 million renovation to the downtown jail and its inmate processing facilities, including moving the inmate transfer area (Sally Port) from Monroe Street to MLK Blvd. and building a new booking area. Co-locating the facility next to the new booking area will save six positions.

Scheduled to open in late 2001, the Lee County CAC – often referred to as a Juvenile Assessment Center – will allow professionals to screen, assess and refer juvenile delinquents to the proper services and track them through the system.

In addition, the CAC will provide an avenue for families in crisis to seek services before the child commits a delinquent act. Lee County’s vision is to expand the role of the assessment center from that of serving delinquent youth to include families in crisis. In doing so, youth will not have to be deemed delinquents before the system may respond to their needs and those of their families.

The CAC will provide an integrated, multidisciplinary assessment, service delivery system and case management system for juveniles referred for delinquency. It will help accelerate a juvenile's access to appropriate treatment, enhance the ability to identify the needs of youth and families and identify risk factors affecting delinquency in the community. With good and clear information, the community will be better able to make cost-effective decisions about the allocation of resources and more effectively impact delinquency issues.