The Challenge of Incorporating the Institutional and Community Networks in the Intervention with Juvenile Offenders: An Action Research in Three Southern Regions of Chile

The results of a participatory action research aiming the empowerment of institutional and community networks in the field of the intervention on youth offenders are presented. This paper focuses the analysis on several dimensions allowing us to have a broader perspective on the advances and challenges faced by intervention programmes on youth offenders. The results show the obstacles faced by these interventors in order to achieve efficiency in the use of resources within these networks. This is due to the fragmentation of public policies targeting these young offenders. It is also due to some barriers related to the inclusion of the community dimension within these programmes and also related to the mechanisms in place in order to provide funding. Some improvements in the understanding and integration of these dimensions by the interventors are also highlighted. Improvements in the continuity and complementarity of the work of these networks in order to increase the integration of the community level within the intervention are also found.