Onondaga County’s probation department is planning a significant expansion of outreach and diversion services to help at-risk youth. County lawmakers are voting Tuesday to accept a $1 million state grant for everything from oversight programs and equipment to hiring and training staff. Probation Director Kristen Jackson told legislators last week much of their time is spent addressing school-based threats.
“We have a lot more cases than we thought we were going to have in the beginning,” Jackson said. “So we’re looking to fund the coordination of just the flow of these cases and there’s a plethora of training that goes along with this.”
Jackson said they need someone to arrange meetings and training with school districts, and make sure they have the tools to make appropriate referrals. One of them might be to a new in-house mental health case manager or therapist within the probation department. Jackson said the county has plenty of mental health resources, but they’re not always accessible to youth when they need it…