The Local Government Association (LGA) project, Children in Trouble, is part of the association's campaign to end custodial sentences for all young people except the most serious offenders. It argues that community sentences are more appropriate.
The LGA has chosen four local councils, and partner organisations including youth offending teams, to trial community sanctions as an alternative to custody. The authorities are due to start work on 1 April but have asked not to be identified.
The project, which will be funded by the authorities, will be managed by the association and the Howard League for Penal Reform. It is expected to last two years, with an initial evaluation after a year.
Clive Grimshaw, a policy consultant for the association and project manager, said each area would trial a different model of work, mostly with teenagers.
"The Youth Justice Board sits on the association's stakeholder board and is very interested in what we're doing," he said.
Portsmouth City Council has been operating a similar model since 1998 through its Preventing Youth Offending Project. Bruce Marr, the project manager, said a combination of broad referral criteria, a voluntary basis for work, early intervention and family work has made this effective.
The project's latest performance figures show a drop in the number of young offenders in the area from 251 between October and December 2005, to 204 in the same period last year.
