The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Gives Marquette County Juvenile Court $202,882 to Help Troubled Youth

MARQUETTE, Mich. - The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation today awarded the Marquette County Juvenile Court a $202,882 grant to improve substance abuse treatment and other services for young people in trouble with the law.

"America's juvenile justice system faces a public health crisis," says Laura Burney Nissen, Ph.D., director of Reclaiming Futures, a national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "As many as four out of five of the two million young people who enter the justice system each year have an alcohol or drug problem. Even though research shows that treating alcohol and drug abuse reduces crime, saves money, and builds stronger communities, the vast majority of young offenders receives no treatment at all."

"We want to change this," says Nissen. "The grants we are awarding today will create plans for model programs in Marquette County and elsewhere in the United States to show how we can reinvent treatment, judicial and social services to meet this urgent need."

Marquette County's effort, called Project Weave, proposes to serve about 290 kids each year in the juvenile justice system, including first-time and repeat offenders, beginning in 2003. Marquette County Juvenile Court's grant is one of 11 totaling $2.59 million awarded to communities nationwide to plan new treatment and other services for delinquent youth.

"The need for Project Weave is clear," says Bruce Suardini, executive director of Great Lakes Recovery Centers. "We know that kids who abuse alcohol and drugs are more likely to behave violently, break the law, or end up in court. We also know that alcohol and drug abuse is a major health problem among juvenile offenders in Marquette County."

Michael J. Anderegg, the presiding judge of Marquette County's Juvenile Court, estimates that 60 percent of the young people who appear before him have alcohol or drug problems.

Marquette County now employs a half-time probation office to exclusively work with youth with histories of alcohol or drug abuse.

"Kids in Marquette County's juvenile justice system with substance abuse problems don't get the treatment and social services they need," says Barry Sullivan, director of the Marquette County Juvenile Court. "Without it, many of them find themselves in trouble with the law again and again."

"This grant will help Marquette County break the costly cycle of substance abuse and delinquency," says Judge Anderegg of the Marquette County Juvenile Court. "We need to reclaim, not throw away, the lives of these young people. We are thrilled to have the support of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help us accomplish this."

Marquette County's Juvenile Court's Project Weave was one of 280 applicants. Over the next five years, Project Weave proposes to improve coordination of local treatment services, make educational, social and community services more accessible to youth and families, and pay special attention to young people with both mental health and substance abuse problems. Beginning this month, juvenile court judges and officers, law enforcement officials, treatment professionals, and civic, youth and family leaders in Marquette County and the other communities will spend a year planning their programs. In four following years, communities can apply for up to $250,000 annually to implement plans.

Reclaiming Futures officials say judicial leadership will play a critical part in these efforts and up to two local judges in each community will participate in a two-year fellowship. Thomas L. Solka, Family Division Judge of the Marquette County Circuit Court, and George W. Hyde III, Chief Referee of the Juvenile Division of the Marquette County Circuit Court, will represent Marquette County in the national fellows program.

Reclaiming Futures is a five-year $21 million initiative of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based at the Graduate School of Social Work at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was established as a national philanthropy in 1972 and today is the largest U.S. foundation devoted to health and health care. To learn about its mission and work, see www.rwjf.org.