Juvenile Residential Facility has added more staff in Sedgwick County
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The Juvenile Residential Facility closed in April of 2022 due to staffing shortages. It reopened a year later, in May 2023. Mario Salinas, deputy director of juvenile programs, says they have about 79% staff between the JRF and Juvenile Detention Facility.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in staffing levels as well as being able to maintain and retain staff, so we’ve seen a huge improvement in that area,” Salinas said.
One of the biggest changes has been moving the Evening Reporting Center on-site. The ERC provides programming to youth after school.
“They’re able to receive evidence-based programming. We have a substance abuse provider that provides one-on-one sessions with youth on-site, as well as educational resources. We have a teacher on site that can provide counseling, tutoring, as well as GED prep,” Salinas said.
They have also had a few residents graduate high school. Emily Allen has been working at JRF for 16 years and says there is more staff to make more programming available.
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“We have good quality staff now, too, that helps ensure that everything goes smoothly,” Allen said. “It’s really good to have life back in the facility again.”
She says they have built programming over the last year making JRF better than what it was before.
“We did a few of our first facility outings where we took all the kids out into the community and did some social activities with them, and we hadn’t ever done that before in the 16 years that I’ve been here,” Allen said. “That was a cool experience to do that with the kids and show them there’s a lot more that you can do in the community instead of getting into trouble. It’s so rewarding. In the year we’ve been open, we’ve had incredible success stories. Our stats were we served 72 since we reopened, and a majority of them have been successful.”
Allen says with more staff, she isn’t spread thin.
“I can devote a lot more of my time to them to really make sure we’re getting those roots into the ground so when they leave here, they’re more hopefully apt to continue to do well instead of not having that good foundation,” Allen said.
They are looking at getting a juvenile services building in the next few years that would house juvenile field services, the ERC and JRF all on one campus, next door to JDF. Right now, they are working with an architect to gather details. They hope to bring the proposal back to the county commission this year and have a new building in 2025 or 2026. They are still hiring.
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