Justice Coordination

The Juvenile Justice Citizens Academy (JJCA) is designed to provide members of the community with the opportunity to gain specific knowledge about the workings of the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice System. Over the academy’s eight-week duration, participants will have the opportunity to hear from juvenile justice stakeholders and decision-makers.

Click here for more information

Pinellas County’s Guardian ad Litem (GAL) Office is looking for dedicated volunteers to represent abused, neglected, and abandoned children in the dependency court system. You will work with a multi-disciplinary team consisting of a Guardian ad Litem Attorney and a professional child welfare manager to advocate for the best interests of the child.

As a volunteer, you are responsible for gathering facts surrounding a child’s case, reviewing reports, finding out the child’s wants and desires, visiting a child’s home, school, or placement, and providing the court with an unbiased recommendation on what is required to serve the child’s best interests. You will assist in providing the judge with the information needed and what the child wants, so the judge can decide what is in the child’s best interests.

All Guardian ad Litem volunteers receive free training and Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses from the Florida Guardian ad Litem Academy.

Click Here to fill out a volunteer inquiry. Volunteers must pass a background check, provide three reference letters, participate in an interview and complete Guardian ad Litem training.

Operation Green Light will be hosting events in various counties across Florida throughout April and May. These events are designed to help individuals save money, settle traffic fines, and may even assist with reinstating their driver’s licenses. You can find the event dates for each county on their website: https://www.flclerks.com/page/greenlight

In Pinellas County, Operation Green Light events will be held on: – April 23rd, 24th, & 30th and – May 1st

The events will take place from 2 PM to 7 PM at the Pinellas County Justice Center, located at 14250 49th St N, Clearwater

For more information and instructions on setting appointments for services, please visit the Pinellas Clerk of Court website

• The Division continues to expand attendance and monitoring of supported justice programs and is working on updated data reporting.
• The Division recently engaged on formalizing the Substance Abuse Advisory Board meetings to foster a structure that allows for action planning and discussion. This will be an ongoing effort.

Justice Coordination collaborated with community partners to hold two cross-system planning meetings to help identify local strategies to improve service connections and outcomes for justice involved youth and adults.  These efforts have resulted in ongoing workgroups that will continue to review barriers and solutions for system coordination. The workgroups are broken out into 4 key goals (below) each with a series of action items for planning.

• System Navigation Action Plan: Establish a sustainable wraparound network that promotes access to services.
• Housing Access Action Plan: Improve Access to housing (supportive, temporary, affordable etc.) as part of a continuum.
• Community Awareness Action Plan: Promote community awareness and family engagement in prevention, intervention, and diversion services.
• Reentry & Transition Action Plan: Develop formalized reentry processes to prepare recently incarcerated residents for transition into the community.