VCLA ’s Court Collaborations include the Court-Referred Community Service (CRCS) Program, Van Nuys Community Court, and Work Crew. All of these programs represent important public/private collaborations that reduce the burden on the criminal justice system while helping to rehabilitate individuals who have been convicted of crimes. These win-win collaborations also provide much-needed benefits and services to neighborhoods and to community-based and government organizations.

For more information about VCLA’s Court Collaborations, please contact:

Program Director
818) 908-5001

The purpose of the Court-Referred Community Service (CRCS) Program is to 1) match individuals who have received court-referred community service with qualified non-profit or government agencies that need their services, and 2) ensure that court referrals complete their assigned hours while making a positive impact on their communities.

Court-mandated community service allows individuals to fulfill their obligation to the criminal justice system through providing much-need assistance to agencies and organizations rather than paying heavy fines and/or serving jail time. VCLA’s primarily role is to match the skills of court referrals with the needs of qualified non-profit or government agencies, while providing oversight to make sure that court-mandated assignments are completed in a timely fashion.

Although court-referral volunteers sometimes enter into their community service assignment expecting a negative experience, they very often come out of it with praise for the positive impact it has had on their lives. They also express appreciation for having learned new things about their communities and for having been able to make a difference. Some find the experience so rewarding that they continue on as volunteers after then have completed their court-mandated service

Van Nuys Community Court is a problem-solving program that reduces quality-of-life crimes, cleans up neighborhoods, and helps community members collaborate to address their unique problems. Van Nuys Community Court uses the power of the justice system and legal leverage to link low-level offenders that commit quality-of life-crimes -- such as prostitution, public drinking, and low-level drug offenses, among others -- with drug treatment, health care, education, job training and other services that address the underlying causes of these offenses. This approach helps reduce “revolving door” crimes that are repeated by the same offenders, thus reducing the level of crime overall. In addition, Van Nuys Community Court restores neighborhoods by requiring offenders to compensate the community through performing such work as street and sidewalk cleaning, graffiti removal, and street tree maintenance.

Van Nuys Community Court encourages neighborhoods to organize and address crime problems by partnering with the criminal justice system. It devotes significant resources to learning about problems specific to neighborhoods and developing solutions in partnership with community stakeholders, such as residents, business owners, police, schools, social service providers, and community groups. These stakeholders serve as Van Nuys Community Court’s eyes and ears. They identify neighborhood trouble spots, propose community service projects for the Court and help evaluate the Court’s effectiveness.

Van Nuys Community Court has operated as a pilot project since April 2001, during which time it has had a significant impact on recidivism and quality-of-life crimes. It is a collaborative partnership with VCLA, the Los Angeles Superior Court, the Public Defender’s Office, the City Attorney’s Office, the Los Angeles Police Department, and social service providers, with input from a Community Advisory Panel.

VCLA provides a Resource Coordinator, who is responsible for assessing the defendant’s background information, making social service recommendations, and facilitating the recommendations of the Community Advisory Panel. VCLA also oversees the Work Crew Program through which Van Nuys Community Court participants perform their community service.

To date, the Van Nuys Community Court has referred over 500 offenders to community service and social services. According to LAPD, the rate at which offenders recommit crimes has been reduced to 20% (from 50%). Offenders have performed more than 7,000 hours of community service, including picking up trash, planting trees, arranging for bulky items to be removed, and assisting at local events in the neighborhood.

The mission of Work Crew is to provide juveniles and adults with constructive ways to restitute their misdemeanor offenses while improving neighborhoods and supporting community events. Work Crew cleans up neighborhoods and participates in community clean-up projects such as Heal the Bay. It also supports colleges and non-profits by providing clean-up services, moving offices, setting up booths, and cleaning up after community events, such as the Jewish Festival of LA, the Cesar Chavez Foundation Festival, the West Hollywood Book Fair, and others.

The program has already served close to 900 hard to place adults and young people by helping them complete their court-assigned community service in such areas as Van Nuys, Panorama City, Downtown LA (Skid Row), and Hollywood. Work Crew serves as a model program that show how to employ court-referred volunteers that might otherwise be hard to place. The service has expanded into the Los Angeles area, and also does a weekly clean-up for VCLA’s parent organization, the Assistance League of Southern California. For more information about Work Crew, please contact

Program Director
(818) 908-5006.