Restitution & Community Service
The Restitution & Community Service program allows court-involved juveniles to perform supervised community service to earn money or hours. Youth can be court ordered or required as a component of a diversion or deferral agreement to either pay money back to their victims, do a specific amount of hours, or both. Youth can earn a maximum of $300 towards their restitution by performing monitored community service. With diversion and deferral matters, youth can earn a maximum of $200.
Youth in the program report to the Haven House Services administrative offices on Saturday and are then dispersed to various worksites in the Wake County area. When this arrangement does not work for youth and their families, the program will try to locate individual placements in the community. In both situations, the youth are monitored/supervised by adults while performing their community service.
Youth work weekly at the Interfaith Community Gardens. Other common worksites for youth and team leaders include the Food Bank of NC, Various Wake County Park Systems, Tree Planting, Neighborhood Thrift Stores, Stop Hunger Now, Neighborhood YMCAs and Interfaith Food Shuttle.
For each full day a youth completes in the program they receive either six community service hours or $30 towards their monetary restitution. At the end of the workday, the team leader and youth complete a behavior report on their work effort. This serves as documentation for their attendance and behavior. A copy is given to the youth’s court counselor after each Saturday to help them monitor the youth’s progress.
When restitution is being paid, the restitution earned is calculated each month and a payment is given to the Wake County Clerk’s Office. In turn, the Clerk’s Office mails a payment to the youth’s victim(s). With diversion and deferral matters, the restitution check is forwarded directly to victims by Haven House accounting staff.
Once a youth has completed their obligation to the program, a termination summary is forwarded to the juvenile’s Court Counselor, the Clerk of Court and in the case of Deferrals, the Assistant District Attorney is provided a copy of the report as well.