Our History
1992 was a rough time for the Long Beach/Los Angeles area. Graffiti, gangs and juvenile crime were on the rise and affected many neighborhoods. Then on the afternoon of April 29, 1992, the cities were ripped apart by massive civil unrest, as citizens took to the streets in response to the jury verdicts that acquitted several Los Angeles police officers of criminal charges of police brutality during the arrest of Rodney King in March 1991. Residents of Long Beach watched TV in horror as fires lit up the sky and the burning and looting moved from South Central LA south into Long Beach. The DMV, then located on the northwest corner of Willow and Pacific was burned. The windows of shops along PCH were broken and the contents looted. An evening curfew was put in place for several days. Some parents did not send their children to school.

In response, SHORTSTOP was brought to Long Beach in 1994, a juvenile diversion program which would reach at-risk youth at a critical point in their lives, when violence or crime have already led them to an encounter with the court system, but before they break the law as adults.



Participants in the program attend education sessions at the Long Beach courthouse taught by Shortstop staff and volunteer attorneys. These intense and highly interactive sessions focus on the circumstances that have brought each young person to the program and the consequences of continuing on their current path. Additional work focuses on helping to improve communication in the home, victim awareness, and empathy.

Each year, the SHORTSTOP Program serves a variety of culturally and economically diverse young offenders and their parents, giving youth a second chance to move toward productive citizenship and STOP SHORT OF CRIME. In partnership with the LA County Probation Department and many other law enforcement, educational and youth services agencies, we have created a joint effort to make Long Beach and the Greater Los Angeles area a safer place in which to live, work, learn, and play.
Family Counseling Program
SHORTSTOP recognizes that delinquent behavior in many cases stems from anger and frustration, emotions parents may not have the skills to address. Our family counseling program uses a variety of best practices such as Cognitive Therapy, Cognitive Restructuring and Reality Therapy, to educate families and assist our program participants.  These free services work on simultaneously aiding families developing better coping skills and helping to create a healthier family environment, while also helping young people develop positive relationships, enhance their level of confidence, build self-esteem and better control and manage their behavior. 
Juvenile Emotional Management
Our Juvenile Emotional Management Program (JEM) is specifically designed to teach at-risk and underserved youth how to recognize emotion and express it appropriately, therefore eliminating a root cause of youth violence. By teaching these skills to youth, JEM is positioned to prevent youth violence rather than responding to it, to empower youth to model non-violent means of self-expression for siblings and peers, and to ultimately grow into peaceful leaders of their own families and communities. 
Our Vision

We envision the greater Long Beach community becoming a better place to live because of our successful Shortstop programs and other youth projects. 

Our Mission

SHORTSTOP Youth Project is dedicated to strengthening the youth and families of the greater Long Beach community through juvenile crime prevention and diversion, family counseling services and law-related education. It is a program of the Long Beach Bar Foundation which is a nonprofit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. 

Our Programs
We've been helping our youth stop short of crime since 1994. Our team of community volunteers and instructors from across the legal community offer the SHORTSTOP Juvenile Crime Diversion Program, Individual and Family Counseling Sessions and the Juvenile Emotional Management Program to students in Long Beach, the South Bay, Catalina Island and the Greater Los Angeles area. Our aim is to enrich the lives of our young people by empowering them to become contributing members of an evolving society.

"I learned that being disrespectful to an officer will get me locked up. I also learned that (crime) does not help me or my future because I may end up in prison or death row."
A Student
"I feel like the program is a good program, and that it can be very effective on people who are first-time offenders who haven't been arrested yet." 
A Student
"I think SHORTSTOP is a good program. It teaches us kids to think before you speak and to think before you do. It also teaches us (to not do) negative things if you can't (suffer) the consequences."
A Student
"I liked that you are able to show my child how a real jail is. Also, that life has a lot of consequences when making bad decisions."
A Parent
"I think this program is helpful in finding out the root of the problem and giving us insight to what we did wrong and explaining it. I believe I have learned from this experience and it will help me in the future."
A Student
"It's a good program for anybody, any age, etc. It helps you become a better person in life in certain ways. I like the program a lot. You can become (somebody) after this program."
A Student
"I feel like it has helped me and taught me a couple of things so far that will help me in the future."
-Alberto
"Thank you to all the SHORTSTOP staff and guest speakers for helping me understand everything about law and how the system works."
A Student
How You Can Get Involved
You can visit our online store or visit our Volunteers Needed page to get involved with our mission.
Where Can You Find Us?
director@longbeachbarfoundation.org

(562) 981-7525

Long Beach Bar Foundation
3515 Linden Ave., Ste. 52
Long Beach, CA 90807
Our office is located in beautiful Bixby Knolls in Long Beach, Calif. We are open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. through 3 p.m. and are closed on holidays. Our SHORTSTOP Juvenile Crime Diversion Program Hours are 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse, 275 Magnolia Ave, Long Beach, CA 90802.