Focus Forward was established in 2005 as a community benefit organization with a nonprofit designation with the mission of creating positive change and promoting successful outcomes for youth in the Fresno County juvenile justice and foster care systems. We provide services at the Juvenile Justice Campus where we work in partnership with the Probation Department. Additionally, we assist foster car
e youth by providing access to clothing, access to higher education and scholarships. Focus Forward serves as a broker of services, providing multidimensional support through interns, community volunteers or other community based agencies that provide strong transition and after-care programs. The programs are tailored for both incarcerated youth, and youth who have successfully transitioned out of custody. Our services have grown over the years and today encompass family strengthening, cultural arts, mentoring and case management. The objective of the Focus Forward programs is to equip youth with tools for success, thereby reducing recidivism, decreasing the social and monetary costs of incarceration, building healthier communities, and above all providing a fresh start in life for the participants. Our organization is unique in that it has no peer in the Fresno community. We were created to fill a niche to bring much needed services to the juvenile justice youth and youth in foster care. Our infrastructure is built into the Probation Department both programatically and physically, and it is a functioning model of a truly public/private partnership.
