The Oregon City Juvenile Diversion Program was developed in conjunction with the Clackamas County Juvenile Department and is designed to refer juveniles charged with minor offenses to a Community Accountability Panel. The Oregon City Diversion Program provides an alternative to formal court intervention for juveniles who are eligible for diversion. In doing so, the program aims at maximizing citizen participation, incorporating concerns from the community, restitution to the victims and appropriate discipline for the juvenile offender. This is accomplished by providing the offender with prompt, certain and just sanction designed to promote and restore juvenile offenders as contributing members of the community.

The Oregon City Diversion Program, with the support of the Clackamas County Juvenile Department, is designed to relieve court congestion, save the taxpayers money, and involve the community in partnership with the juvenile system, in the welfare of its juvenile offenders and their families.

The philosophy shared by the Clackamas County Juvenile Department and the Oregon City Diversion Program is to protect the public, to hold youth offenders accountable for their actions, and to provide them with opportunities to develop skills that prevent them from re-offending. Restoring loss to the community and victims is fundamental in our collective work. The consequences that are assigned to offenders shall be natural, logical, immediate, short term in nature and relate to the behavior.

The community can best understand juvenile delinquency through awareness and involvement. The Oregon City Diversion Program will take steps to increase the community's awareness and understanding of juvenile issues and will solicit active participation by the community in offense prevention and accountability.

To contact the Juvenile Diversion Coordinator: arohm@pcreek.org