“I just have to thank you. Since day one, you guys always have my back and support me and are always trying to help me stay strong and out of trouble. And it works.”
– A Huckleberry CARC Client
Huckleberry Community Assessment and Resource Center (CARC)
For twenty years, the Huckleberry Community Assessment and Resource Center (CARC) has been a single point of entry for crisis intervention, assessment, service integration and referral for arrested youth. Staff from juvenile probation, public health, the sheriff’s department, the police department, and community-based organizations work together in the same space to assess and case manage youth who are arrested for a variety of offenses, both felony and misdemeanor.
Huckleberry CARC is a collaboration in the most unique sense of the word: a very real public/private partnership that is paving the way for a new process to provide adolescents who have made mistakes with guidance and support. The program serves young people ages 11 – 17.
Youth are brought to Huckleberry CARC in police custody. Once at the Huckleberry CARC, the youth meet with a probation officer for intake; a licensed psychology technician to identify any physical or mental health crisis; and a case manager, who conducts a voluntary assessment. Huckleberry CARC staff develops a case plan. Youth and their families leave with a new sense of support, opportunity and hope.
Case managers have successfully worked with youth to reintegrate them into their schools, arrange for special educational services, obtain mental health services, complete community service and probation requirements, and engage the youth in positive social, arts, athletic, and youth development programs.
Huckleberry CARC is open from 9 am to Midnight, Monday through Friday. For further information, please call (415) 437.2500.
The SFPD and the Juvenile Justice Coalition are proud to announce the release of the “Know Your Rights for Youth in San Francisco” brochure, to help educate youth and parents about their rights. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS BROCHURE
CARC CONTACT, HOURS, & LOCATION
44 Gough Street, Suite 104
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 437-2500
1-800-735-2929 (TTY)
Fax (415) 437-2511
PROJECT READY (Reconnecting, Educating, and Achieving Dreams for Youth)
Youth in the Project READY program out on the San Francisco Bay by their Huckleberry case managers.
As a grantee of the California PropelNext initiative, a three-year grant underwritten by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Huckleberry has piloted Project READY. Modeled after our juvenile justice program, Huckleberry Community Assessment & Resource Center (CARC), Project READY (Reconnecting, Educating, and Achieving Dreams for Youth), ensures that 8th graders with behavioral or truancy issues successfully transition to high school and avoid contact with the juvenile justice system.
Academic support and intensive one-on-one case management, combined with parental support and education, can reduce rates of school failure and arrest among youth with multiple risk factors. To achieve the goal of transitioning youth to high school while avoiding contact with the juvenile justice system, the program works with youth from the summer before 8th grade through the first semester of 9th grade, with the most intensive services offered during 8th grade.
In September 2017, Project READY received a $98,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente to provide intensive mental health services for trauma-exposed students and their families on-site at MLK Middle School and Willie L. Brown, Jr. Middle School. We also provide support and training opportunities for teachers and staff in an effort to improve school culture.
