Bannock County’s at-risk youth center receives national recognition and award
Sam Ross
POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI)– Bannock County’s ‘The Village: A Place for Youth and Families’ recently received the 2025 Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties for the center’s innovative approach to counseling kids and teens in the area.
Since opening in 2023, The Village has successfully served over 600 young people as a single point of contact for counseling and diversionary programs to keep kids out of the criminal justice system.
Matt Olsen, director of Bannock County Juvenile Justice, said the secret to The Village’s success lies in the center’s high-quality staffing and teamwork between dozens of area organizations.
“We collaborate with so many different agencies in the community,” said Olsen. “We collaborate with local governments, universities, we collaborate with law enforcement, the prosecutor’s office… we have a lot of AmeriCorps students who play a significant role in allowing us to expand, really, the number of people that we can provide prevention services to, and then we just have volunteers from the community who want to come and contribute; so it’s rewarding to see how many people are really interested and committed to helping families and youth in need.”
The work of The Village’s staff and partners has also lead to a marked decrease in court proceedings for youth in the area, according to Bannock County. Between the first quarters of 2024 and 2025, juvenile court filings dropped 43%.
For more information, you can visit The Village’s webpage on the Bannock County website.