The Letot Center was established in 1979 through a joint public-private effort by the Dallas County Juvenile Department, Dallas Independent School District, Junior League of Dallas. In 1988 the Letot Center Capital Foundation, a 501(c) (3) private non-profit foundation was formed to raise funds to build a new facility to house expanded programs. In 1990 a new 3 million dollar facility was built entirely with private funds and turned over to the Dallas County Juvenile Department to serve as the central service delivery system for runaway youth and their families in Dallas County.

Letot Center is a co-educational short-term residential facility that provides assessment, crisis intervention, emergency shelter care, foster care, non-residential counseling and referral services for status offenders. The facility has a shelter capacity for 40 youth in residential care. Programming is designed to reunite runaways with their families whenever possible and to prevent youth from committing criminal offenses or from entering the Juvenile Justice System. Individualized treatment plans for each youth and their family are designed to increase healthy protective factors and decrease risk factors associated with delinquency.
During 2002, Letot served 1,831 youth and their families, conducting 37,109 counseling sessions, and handling over 3,000 crisis calls. The Intake Unit diverted 65% of Police referrals from shelter care through counseling and community-based support services.

Letot Center employs 58 full time staff and has an annual operational budget of 2.6 million dollars. Educational services are provided by the Dallas County Juvenile Justice Charter School and medical services are provided by the University of Texas Medical Branch. A chaplain and volunteers provide non-denominational religious services at the Center. The Letot Capital Foundation remains active in providing furniture, equipment and materials to support Letot programs.