When Vulnerable Girls Need More Than a Court Date

A recent story out of Florida caught my attention after law enforcement and partner agencies reported recovering 163 missing and vulnerable children through Operation Statewide Shield. The operation brought together law enforcement, child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health, victim advocates, and community partners to locate and support young people. Many of the children had experienced abuse, neglect, exploitation, or other forms of vulnerability.

Having worked with a human trafficking task force, stories like this are a reminder of something I learned over and over again:

Vulnerable youth rarely belong to just one system.

A young person may be involved with child welfare, school, law enforcement, behavioral health, probation, and community organizations—sometimes all at the same time. When those systems operate independently, we can miss the bigger picture.

This is also where my work with girls began.

Seeing the girl behind the case

After more than two decades working in juvenile justice, I had seen firsthand that girls entering the juvenile justice system often brought very different experiences and needs with them. Many had histories of trauma, abuse, family disruption, exploitation, unhealthy relationships, mental-health concerns, or other experiences that had shaped the behaviors bringing them to court.

I began asking a simple question:

What would happen if we stopped looking only at the offense and started looking more intentionally at the young woman behind it?

That question ultimately led to the creation of Girls Court in Kent County in 2017.

Girls Court was built around the idea that accountability and support do not have to be opposites. The goal was to create a more intentional response for girls one that recognized their individual experiences, connected them with appropriate services and supportive adults, and gave them an opportunity to build something different for their future.

Why this still matters

The Florida operation is a powerful example of what can happen when agencies work together toward one goal: keeping vulnerable children safe. But prevention and intervention cannot begin only when a young person goes missing. We have to ask what happens before that point.

Who notices the warning signs?

Who understands the girl's history?

Who knows that repeated truancy, running away, unhealthy relationships, substance use, or repeated system involvement may be connected to something much deeper?

Who is talking to the family?

Who is connecting her to services?

And most importantly, who is coordinating the response?

That is why I continue to believe that child welfare, law enforcement, schools, probation, behavioral health, courts, and community organizations cannot operate in silos.

The lesson I took from Girls Court

Creating Girls Court taught me something that has continued to shape my work:

Young people need systems that see the whole person not just the incident that brought them through the door. That doesn't mean removing accountability.

It means understanding that accountability is more effective when it is paired with meaningful intervention, supportive relationships, and opportunities for change.

And sometimes the most important intervention is simply having a group of adults who communicate with one another, understand the young person's story, and refuse to give up on her. That's bigger than one agency. It's bigger than one court. And it's bigger than one case.

When we work together to understand vulnerable youth and respond to their needs early, we have a better chance of changing the trajectory of their lives.