An Overview:

DelStar is an outpatient program for male and female adolescents (10–20 years old), adjudicated (or deferred) on a sexual offense. Clients receive weekly individual therapy as well as, when appropriate, group therapy. A multi-systemic approach to therapy includes developing an individual, workable relapse prevention/wellness plan with the following elements:
• understanding of the pathway to his/her offending,
• becoming accountable for all actions,
• developing and consistently utilizing preventative strategies,
• learning anger/stress management skills,
• training in self-awareness, productive communication, problem-solving, the use of appropriate expression of thoughts and feelings, and developing emphatic understanding of others.

History:

Saint Gabriel’s System was awarded a contract by the City of Philadelphia to launch a special counseling program targeting juveniles who were in need of sex offense specific treatment through Family Court and Philadelphia Juvenile Probation. The name DelStar is short for "De La Salle Self-esteem Training for Adolescent Recovery" and was inaugurated in August 1993. In 1996 team members from the DelStar program presented the first of several panel discussions (“Techniques for Confronting the Denial Patterns of Adolescent Sex Offenders”) at the Pennsylvania Psychological Association’s convention in Philadelphia.

Program Requirements:

• The youth must be adjudicated delinquent on a sexual offense; youth on deferred adjudication status will also be considered
• DelStar clients require a full scale IQ of 70 or above, however, lower IQ levels can be assessed on a case-by-case basis.