Tampa, FL (July 18, 2024) – The Florida based Non-Profit BAYS, a statewide provider of several delinquency based services for Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice, announced that it has recently been awarded a contract to provide intensive family reunification services in St. Johns County. St. Johns County, located in northeast Florida, has a population of just under 300,000 and is home to the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the contiguous United States, St. Augustine, Florida.

BAYS will implement programming that has proven to be successful in neighboring Volusia County to prevent child welfare removals and reunite children with their families due to separations because of child welfare concerns, according to Robert Patterson, the President and CEO of BAYS. “In 2022, we opened our first S.T.R.I.V.E. (Supportive Trusting Relationships with Inclusion, Vision, and Empathy) Program in Volusia County and expanded S.T.R.I.V.E. into Orange County earlier this year. This St. Johns County expansion will now give us three (3) teams within the state. Our goal is to partner with the family and implement preventive measures to strengthen and stabilize the family overall,” Patterson said.

S.T.R.I.V.E is a program designed to complement traditional child welfare case management services by providing intensive in-home family engagement through supportive and therapeutic interventions, to successfully prevent removal and/or reunite children with their families. Through intensive, in-home services, BAYS will oversee the transition of children who have entered the Child Welfare System in St. Johns County and who are dually involved, or at risk of becoming involved in the Juvenile Delinquency System.