The Berlin/Gorham Juvenile Court Diversion Program is a community-based alternative to traditional court processing for pre-adjudicated youth (ages eight to seventeen) who have committed a criminal offense.

Youthful offenders attend an intake interview with their parents and program staff. A committee of community volunteers, the youth, his/her parent(s) and program staff meet to discuss the offense together. They create a contract for what the youth will do to learn from his/her mistake and make restoration as appropriate.

 The contract is carried out by the youth with program and parental oversight. It may include the youth writing an apology letter to a victim, completing a project aimed at getting the youth to reflect on the nature of the crime, and learning about issues such as anger management, conflict resolution, or other topics as appropriate. The contract usually includes a commitment to a specified amount of Community Service, which each youth must complete.

An option within the diversion program is an eight-week Juvenile Firesetters Program.

Court Diversion is a Tri-County CAP Youth Alternatives Program

 For information, or to volunteer in the Court Diversion Program
call Youth Alternatives at: (603) 752-1872, or send

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