1153357 - Youth Opportunity Center Program

A. Fourteen years ago, Montgomery County (“The County”) Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) established a Positive Youth Development Initiative (PYDI) to facilitate the coordination of efforts to address a rise in gang and youth violence in the County. The PYDI funded number of programs intended to address these complex issues from a best practice Positive Youth Development PYD lens. These services focused on increased safety and well-being of youth and families in critically affected areas of Montgomery County; increased awareness and capacity of families and communities to respond to factors that contribute to gang membership and activity as well as youth violence. The Crossroads Youth Opportunity Center (YOC), now referred to as Down County YOC Program, began operation in 2006 and Up County YOC Program in 2009 as part of the PYDI programs. While the County has been effective at addressing the gang issue through what is now called the PYDI, the County has noticed an increase in youth exposed to violence and many other complex risk factors that have both short term and long-term impacts on the overall medical and mental health wellness of the youth and their families, especially in the Montgomery Village, Germantown, and East County areas. This solicitation continues the County’s commitment to community-based violence prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation through a continuum of integrated health and human services in the Up-County and Down County areas for multi-cultural youth male, female, or Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Questioning and Gender non-conforming that fall either in the medium, high, or extreme risk for involvement in gangs, violence, criminal justice system, sexual trafficking, school dropout, teen pregnancy, and substance abuse especially exposed to complex trauma.