 This co-educational, short-term program was established in 1979 through a joint public-private effort by the Dallas County Juvenile Department, Dallas Independent School District and Junior League of Dallas. Letot Center serves as the central service delivery system for runaway youth and their families in Dallas County. Our program disrupts the cycle of abuse and high risk behavior, resulting in low rates of recidivism into the formal Juvenile Justice System.
Licensed by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS), the facility provides 24 hour Assessments, Crisis Intervention, Emergency Shelter Care, Out-patient Counseling and Referral Services. Private sector donations provided the current 40,000 square foot Letot Center facility to Dallas County in 1990. The building has a shelter capacity for 40 youth in residential care who are referred by law enforcement for runaway, truancy and class B misdemeanors. Programming is designed to reunite runaways with their families whenever possible. Individualized treatment plans
for each youth and their family aim to increase healthy protective factors and to decrease risk factors associated with delinquency.
In 2006 Letot staff served 2,287 youth and their families. The Center successful collaborated with Dallas Police, FBI, Juvenile Department staff and Judges to disrupt the cycle of adolescent prostitution. Over 70% of the
most serious prostitution cases were arrest-free one year after service provision. The addition of a Bilingual Truancy Probation Officer allowed us to expand services to combat truancy. A new Volunteer Attorney received training to assist two Probation Officers in providing classes on Juvenile Law, which averaged 114 clients per class.
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