Santa Cruz County GirlZpace

GirlZpace provides gender-specific services to girls on probation and girls at risk of juvenile justice involvement in Santa Cruz County. GirlZpace provides direct services for girls in the areas of trauma, health, family, and education. GirlZpace includes a program to address the needs of girls with a history of trauma; enhanced access to health care; teen-parent conflict resolution counseling; a girls-only high school education; and opportunities to build positive relationships with peers, adults, and themselves. The program also funds gender-specific programming within the Probation Department, including two female probation officers with a girls-only caseload, non-invasive drug testing, and transportation to community based programs.

  • Conflict Resolution Center (CRC) provides Victim Offender dialogueue and supports girls and their families by providing parent-teen conflict resolution services
  • Survivor's Healing Center (SHC) provides group counnseling to address childhood sexual trauma. SHC also includes individual and family counseling regarding childhood sexual trauma.
  • The Santa Cruz County Juvenile Probation Department provides two Deputy Probation Officer II (DPO I/II), one of which is bilingual and bicultural and who are assigned a girls-only caseload and gives girls' access to the California Endowment's Healthy Returns Initiative (HRI), which helps them access health insurance and referrals to needed community health care. Probation provides non-invasive drug testing and transportation to community resources including GirlZpace sites, DeWitt Anderson School, and drug and alcohol abuse programming.
  • A Youth Coordinator is provided for three GirlZpace sites across the county; located at the Walnut Avenue Women's Center (WAWC)in Santa Cruz, the Mountain Community Resource Center in Felton, and the YWCA in Watsonville. These sites provide a range of programming and the Youth Advocate facilitates a Girl's Circle support group at each site as well as seperate, informal sessions that allow the girls to develop projects focused on their specific interests. WAWC also provides outreach to girls both on probation and not on probation.
  • GirlZpace youth are given opportunities to attend girls-only Seven Challenges groups around the county to address substance use issues.