Blog: Positive Youth Development

Collaboration in Action: Reclaiming Futures Teams Up with Pathways Transition Training Partnership to Host a Joint Webinar

Collaboration. A word we use a lot at Reclaiming Futures. Why? Because based on our fifteen years of working in jurisdictions across the country, collaboration can be an impactful catalyst for change. While the National Office puts collaboration into action regularly it was recently visibly demonstrated.

As you may know, Reclaiming Futures is part of the Regional Research Institute (RRI) at Portland State University. We are affiliated with such efforts as the National Wraparound InitiativeThe Center to Advance Racial Equity, and Pathways Transition Training Partnership (PTTP). A few months ago, Evan Elkin, Christa Myers and I began conversations with Drs. Eileen Brennan and Pauline Jivanjee of PTTP to develop a joint webinar. Both groups understand the importance of collaboration between stakeholders in juvenile justice settings to improve the health and wellness of young people with substance use and/or mental health concerns. However, our focus for the webinar did not become immediately clear. We spent time examining our commonalities to decide the best topic for diverse fields and individuals (e.g., juvenile justice; behavioral health; community members). We decided to emphasize our respective work in the area of evidence-based practices.

News from the National Executive Director, October 2016

In this month’s Reclaiming Futures newsletter, we reflect on President Obama’s proclamation which, for the second year in a row, makes October National Youth Justice Awareness Month. President Obama’s focus on juvenile justice has been impressive, but it is important that the field does not become complacent as we contemplate what the future holds for juvenile justice reform.

News from the National Executive Director, February 2016

Maria Hernandez, a Santa Cruz Reclaiming Futures participant, with her mom.

It took decades and a mountain of research evidence showing that incarcerating adolescents does little to prevent recidivism before policymakers took notice and began supporting measures to reduce incarceration and invest in community-based alternatives that prioritize treatment and support for youth and their families. Increasingly, over the past 15 years, we have seen the field come together around the common goal of creating a system for justice-involved youth that is more therapeutic, less punitive, less reliant on detention and incarceration, and more thoroughly grounded in research evidence and best practice. The catalyst for this paradigm shift has been a series of significant strategic investments by federal agencies and by major foundations like Annie E. Casey with its Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, the MacArthur Foundation and its Models for Change, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) investment in Reclaiming Futures. These investments have all paid off in different ways to drive the field forward.

National Mentoring Month: A Question From the Field

Q: How can our juvenile drug court (JDC) maintain and sustain a mentoring program?

A: Mentoring programs can enhance the success and effectiveness of JDCs. Maintaining and sustaining a mentoring program requires cooperation among JDCs, community, and stakeholders. JDCs must have access to a full range of funding, staffing, and community resources required to sustain a mentoring program over the long term.

The longevity of any JDC program relies upon funding and community support. Courts that have been successful have leveraged cross-system resources and opportunities to obtain more funding from all available state and community resources. Community support increases the adaptability and sustainability of mentoring programs by providing mentors, funders, collaborators, and communication agents. It also increases opportunities for contact between youth and positive environments, provides activities for mentors and youth to engage in, and provides youth a feeling of belonging.

New Report, Reducing Teen Substance Misuse: What Really Works

medicine-385947_1920A new report, "Reducing Teen Substance Misuse: What Really Works," calls attention to the rising rate of teen overdose fatalities in the United States, the role of prescription painkillers, as well as research-based solutions for prevention and treatment. The report, supported by a grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, was authored and produced by Trust for America's Health (TFAH), a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, non-partisan organization with a focus on public health policy and community prevention and treatment strategies. 

Significant Increase in Teen Overdose Fatalities

TFAH finds that youth drug overdose fatalities, among 12 to 25 year-olds, more than doubled in 35 states over the past ten years, particularly among young men and boys. Fatality rates for youth overdose more than doubled in 18 states, more than tripled in 12 states, and more than quadrupled in five states (Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Wyoming). Analyses reveals that, while no state had a youth overdose death rate over 6.1 per 100,000 before 2001, 33 states were above 6.1 per 100,000 deaths by the year 2013.

Teen Drug Overdose Death Rate Doubles Over Last Decade; News Roundup

Every week Reclaiming Futures rounds up the latest news on juvenile justice reform, adolescent substance use treatment, and teen mental health. 

Teen Drug Overdose Death Rate Doubles Over Last Decade (Psychiatry Advisor)
Trust For America's Health released a new report with findings that the American drug overdose mortality rate has more than doubled over the last ten years, and especially among young men between the ages of 12 to 25 years old. Prescription drugs were found to be responsible for many of the overdoses, and were also found to be connected to heroin addictions in young people.

November is Native American Heritage Month

first-nation-908605 (2)President Obama has proclaimed November as "Native American Heritage Month." This is a time to celebrate the many significant historic and contemporary contributions of American Indians and Alaska Natives, a population of 5.4 million people in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In the juvenile justice field, this month is not only a time to celebrate Native American heritage, but also an opportunity to make visible the unique youth justice challenges faced by Native American communities, and to highlight steps for collaboratively working with tribal communities to improve conditions for Native American youth and their families.

Though 1990 was the first year "Native American Indian Heritage Month" was recognized as a national legal holiday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, the pursuit of a holiday to celebrate heritage began in the early 20th century when Dr. Arthur C. Parker - a Seneca Indian and director of the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Rochester, New York - promoted a day to celebrate "First Americans." In May 1916, the first "American Indian Day" was declared by the state of New York, and many states observed a version of this day for years before official national recognition in 1990 for the month of November.

Welcoming NW Ohio: Our New Rural Community Collaborative Site

The National Program Office (NPO) is very pleased to announce Reclaiming Futures' new rural community collaborative site in NW Ohio. The NW Ohio Reclaiming Futures (NORF) Initiative is a collaboration between Defiance, Henry, and Williams Counties, as well as their regionally shared service providers and community stakeholders. As a new example of a Reclaiming Futures rural community collaborative site (the site model also exists in Kentucky and North Carolina), NW Ohio provides an important example of a site tapping into an innovative state justice reinvestment fund in order to join the Reclaiming Futures initiative.

NW Ohio is Reclaiming Futures' fifth site in the state of Ohio. Evan Elkin, Executive Director of Reclaiming Futures, credits the growing presence of Reclaiming Futures in Ohio to the neighborly and supportive tendencies of Ohioans, which creates a grassroots sharing of information. “They share with their communities and around the state - and word of the positive outcomes the existing sites are seeing is getting around,” explains Elkin.

Defiance, Henry, and Williams Counties of NW Ohio provide an excellent example of Ohio's collaborative and supportive nature, and how this quality of working together and sharing resources particularly benefits rural communities. The three counties joined together to propose the NORF Initiative upon recognizing a need in their communities for more consistency and specifically...

Red Ribbon Week

red ribbon weekDuring the week of October 23, 2015, Red Ribbon Week was in full swing at Montgomery County Juvenile Court. This time of the year is another opportunity to focus our efforts on tobacco, alcohol and drug violence prevention. Red Ribbon Week was created in memory of DEA Special Agent Kiki Camarena, who passed away 30 years ago. Red Ribbon Week has since become the nation’s largest and longest running prevention campaign.

With the support of Judge Kuntz and Judge Capizzi, our Juvenile Drug Court and Reclaiming Futures came together to host a variety of activities at the Montgomery County Probation Services Building. Kyla Woods, Tashina Sampson and Brittini Long worked side by side with Drug Court youth to decorate the Probation Services lobby with Red Ribbon decor to cheerfully welcome all guests.  A large classroom size board was also decorated with information to give youth examples of how to respond to peer pressure and remain drug and alcohol free. A parent forum was also conducted to provide education and awareness for the parents to support their children in remaining drug and alcohol free.

Next Week: A Restorative Justice Interactive Webinar Opportunity

so what is restorative justiceAccording to research conducted by The World Prison Brief, the United States has the highest prison population of any developed country in the world. The tendency to incarcerate, rather than rehabilitate, has taken its toll on our country’s most vulnerable youth. Due to increased public awareness around this issue, communities nationwide are exploring and implementing alternatives to incarceration -- as well as actively seeking to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Restorative Justice is one of the alternatives to the standard juvenile justice approach.

‘Somebody Asked:’ A Simple Strategy to Address Substance Use

This story was originally published in YouthToday.org. It is authored by Alexa Eggleston, a senior program officer, domestic programs at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. 

Alexa-Eggleston2-336x504In the first two years of our work to advance new approaches to prevent and reduce substance use among youth and young adults, a key finding we often share surprises most people: Young people actually think health care practitioners should talk to them about alcohol and drugs.

Unfortunately, most health care providers do not screen their adolescent patients for substance use as part of routine clinical care.  And no, we aren’t talking about the “Just Say No” approach of the ‘80s and ‘90s, but a new approach based in the research literature that frames substance use as a health issue.

Just as health care practitioners counsel young people about other health matters — like the importance of eating right, exercise and safe sex — there is a new movement to apply these same strategies to discuss the negative impact that alcohol and drugs can have on their health, relationships and other things that matter to them.

Opportunity Board Roundup: Juvenile Justice Grants, Jobs, Webinars and Events

opportunityBelow you'll find a selection of the latest grants, jobs, webinars and events posted to our Opportunity Board. Please share the Reclaiming Futures Opportunity Board with your colleagues in the juvenile justice, adolescent substance use and teen mental health areas. We encourage you to browse and to post!

Opportunity Board Roundup: Juvenile Justice Grants, Jobs, Webinars and Events

opportunityBelow you'll find a selection of the latest grants, jobs, webinars and events posted to our Opportunity Board. Please share the Reclaiming Futures Opportunity Board with your colleagues in the juvenile justice, adolescent substance use and teen mental health areas. We encourage you to browse and to post!

New ‘Ban the Box’ Bill Would Improve Access to Federal Jobs for Youth With Records; News Roundup

Every week Reclaiming Futures rounds up the latest news on juvenile justice reform, adolescent substance use treatment, and teen mental health. 

New ‘Ban the Box’ Bill Would Improve Access to Federal Jobs for Youth With Records (Juvenile Justice Information Exchange)
The new Fair Chance To Compete for Jobs Act would help youth with criminal histories gain employment by prohibiting employers from asking about criminal history until a conditional offer of employment is received. The hope is that this will help qualified candidates avoid the stigma of past conviction when seeking out employment. As many as 70 million people with criminal histories may face barriers to employment.

Opportunity Board Roundup: Juvenile Justice Grants, Jobs, Webinars and Events

opportunityBelow you'll find a selection of the latest grants, jobs, webinars and events posted to our Opportunity Board. Please share the Reclaiming Futures Opportunity Board with your colleagues in the juvenile justice, adolescent substance use and teen mental health areas. We encourage you to browse and to post!

Back to School: Activating Support for Behavioral Health Awareness

Back to School Twitter Profile PicKids and teens are gearing up to head back to school, but more than 12 million of them will face a mental health disorder over the next year. Sometimes these issues aren’t addressed in schools or by parents, and can result in substance use, status offenses and ultimately, involvement with the juvenile justice system.

As juvenile justice and behavioral health experts, we can empower our networks to provide support to young people struggling with a mental health disorders, so they can continue on a productive path inside and outside the classroom.

4 Ways to Promote Behavioral and Mental Health During September’s Recovery Month

2015-planning-partners_banners_squareThe Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is gearing up for its 26th year hosting Recovery Month, a national observance to promote awareness around substance use treatment and mental health services.

As a champion for better treatment for adolescents, Reclaiming Futures echoes SAMHSA’s Recovery Month message that behavioral health is essential to overall health. We’ve seen tremendous gains across our 42 sites among teens who have received substance use treatment or mental health services, connected with mentors and natural helpers, and immersed back into their communities in productive ways.

NCJFCJ Resolves to Stop Shackling of Children in Juvenile Court; News Roundup

Every week Reclaiming Futures rounds up the latest news on juvenile justice reform, adolescent substance use treatment, and teen mental health. 

New Release: The NCJFCJ Resolves to Stop Shackling of Children in Juvenile Court (Nevada Business)
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) released its resolution on Monday stating that automatic shackling of young people in juvenile court is not a fair or trauma-informed practice, and such a practice will no longer be tolerated. This resolution builds on the NCJFCJ's 2005 guidelines calling for a continuum of effective and least intrusive responses in juvenile justice.

Opportunity Board Roundup: Juvenile Justice Grants, Jobs, Webinars and Events

opportunityBelow you'll find a selection of the latest grants, jobs, webinars and events posted to our Opportunity Board. Please share the Reclaiming Futures Opportunity Board with your colleagues in the juvenile justice, adolescent substance use and teen mental health areas. We encourage you to browse and to post!

Mural Dedication Attracts Community Support for Reclaiming Futures

The Reclaiming Futures program in Montgomery County, Ohio, has been using arts New Image1programming to build assets in our young people since 2010. More than 110 youth have benefited from the Helping Adolescents Achieve Long-term Objectives (HAALO) program since that time.

On June 30, 2015 Montgomery County Juvenile Court hosted a Community Mural Dedication to celebrate the amazing work of the HAALO Program. The “Signs to a Creative Future” mural was dedicated to the youth artists who spent countless hours conceptualizing and creating the mural.

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