Blog: Reclaiming Futures

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the Reclaiming Futures Cherokee Nation site in Oklahoma. I am especially impressed by how committed the team members are to not only serving the youth of the Cherokee Nation, but also to helping them connect with their cultural heritage.
I had a couple of key takeaways:

• Cultural sensitivity is key: As Treatment Fellow Lori Medina mentions in her video, the Cherokee Nation site has unique cultural challenges in working with local teens. Being able to fully understand and relate to Native American culture has allowed the site to truly connect with troubled kids and make sure they are on the path to rehabilitation and success. There is a particular focus on learning how to make Native American crafts and participating in cultural events, which not only teaches the kids a marketable trade, but also helps them to connect to their heritage and community.
   
• Evidence-based practices are crucial: Project Director Jennifer Kirby is a big supporter of using evidence-based practices to improve treatment for troubled teens. As Jennifer explains in her video, the Reclaiming Futures model provides them with the tools to better assess troubled youth at intake. This allows them to make better-informed recommendations for treatment and services, which leads to stronger outcomes.

Earlier today I created a word cloud to visualize the most common words and themes of this blog. This is what popped up:
 
What do you think? Is that an accurate representation of our discussions on this blog?

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Time is ripe for reforms in juvenile justice
  New York Law Journal
  Important lessons from New York about reforming complex government systems. This is not the time to consider scaling back our commitment to community-based services for troubled youth.
• New Georgia juvenile code advancing in state legislature
  Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
  A long-planned overhaul of Georgia’s juvenile justice code got its first official nod of approval Wednesday, but backers still haven’t figured out how to pay for it.
• Youth Court Proposed for New York
  StarGazette
  The state's chief judge Tuesday proposed to create a new youth court that would adjudicate cases involving 16- and 17-year-olds who are charged with non-violent crimes.
• Kentucky House approves task force to overhaul juvenile code, decrease jailing for “status offenses”
  The Republic
  Kentucky lawmakers in the House on recently approved a measure to create a task force to rewrite the state's juvenile code. The task force also would look for overall ways to reduce the incarceration of juveniles, ways to provide more treatment in the community and ways to use any savings for more services for juveniles.
• Georgia eyes ways to keep teens out of lockup
  New England Cable News
  Georgia law allows adolescents who wind up in the juvenile court system for infractions such as skipping school or missing curfew to be treated similar to juveniles who commit crimes and are locked in detention centers, said Dr. Sandra Stone, vice president of academic affairs at Dalton State and a researcher on juvenile justice reform.
• Virginia Senate committee rejects administration-backed bill to try more juveniles as adults
  The Republic
  A Senate committee on Monday rejected legislation backed by Gov. Bob McDonnell that would have resulted in more juveniles being tried in adult court.
• New York Governor wants incarcerated juveniles ‘close to home’
  Legislative Gazette
  Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to build on reforms to the state's juvenile justice system by proposing the "Close to Home" initiative which would allow New York City's youth to be treated in facilities near their homes.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• The strange lessons of Whitney Houston's addiction
  The Atlantic
  When writer, Elizabeth Wurtzel, was in the rehabilitative treatment center she heard that one in 35 addicts will get and stay clean and sober.

Since its founding, Reclaiming Futures has been dedicated to helping to build a balanced and restorative juvenile justice system that holds youth accountable, but breaks the cycle of crime and drugs by providing evidence-based substance abuse treatment to the kids who need it.
Along the way, we’ve connected with 29 communities across the country and received great feedback on the power of the Reclaiming Futures model and its ability to ensure that youth have access to treatment. Our model has 6 parts:

1. Initial screening: As soon as possible after being referred to the juvenile justice system, youth should be screened for substance abuse problems using a reputable screening tool.
2. Initial assessment: If substance abuse is indicated, refer for service coordination.
3. Service coordination: Intervention plans should be designed and coordinated by community teams that are family-driven, span agency boundaries and draw upon community-based resources.
4. Initiation: Service initiation is a critical moment in intervention.
5. Engagement: Youth and families must be effectively engaged in services.
6. Transition: Community coordination teams should specify how much of each service plan must be completed, after which agency-based services will be gradually withdrawn, as appropriate.

PORTLAND, OREGON - The Children and Youth Services Review released its online issue featuring Reclaiming Futures, a national organization that improves drug and alcohol treatment for teens in juvenile courts. The issue includes 12 articles by 19 experts and is available here.

"Reclaiming Futures is a tested and proven approach that has set a new national standard of care and is making a difference in the lives of teens and families in communities across the country," said Laura Burney Nissen, Ph.D., founder of Reclaiming Futures and associate professor at Portland State University's School of Social Work. "This issue of Children and Youth Services Review documents the ideas, principles and practices of the Reclaiming Futures model."

Edited by Dr. Nissen of the School of Social Work at Portland State University, Dan Merrigan, Ph.D., associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, and Kristin Schubert, MPH, program officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the issue delves deep into the Reclaiming Futures model, how it works, why it's successful and lessons learned over the past decade.

"This edition of Children and Youth Services Review gets to the heart of the national Reclaiming Futures model," said Dr. Merrigan. "We take an honest look at the juvenile justice field and share proven strategies for practitioners and community leaders to help teens caught in the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime."
The issue covers the following areas:

 
What a Long Way We've Come
Almost exactly three years ago, I was asked if I would be interested in launching, writing, and editing a blog for Reclaiming Futures, focused on juvenile justice reform and adolescent substance abuse treatment.
My answer then: Would I ever!
Seven hundred and eighty-six posts later -- many authored by some of the leading experts in the field -- it's time for me to lay my figurative pen down. (Fortunately, I know I'm leaving the blog in very good hands; you can count on Reclaiming Futures to remain a go-to source for information in the fields of juvenile justice and adolescent substance abuse treatment.)
When I began, hardly anyone else was using blogging or social media to talk about juvenile justice or adolescent treatment. To say that's changed is an understatement. There's been a virtual explosion of skilled and thoughtful people disseminating news, opinion, new research, and best practices (in juvenile justice, anyway; teen treatment has a ways to go).
I think that's great. But it's not enough.

Reclaiming Futures will be hosting an all-day workshop on October 10, 2011 at the the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) pre-conference next week, the Monday before the full juvenile justice conference gets underway. 
 
Best of all - we'll be livecasting it: you can watch it right here on our blog. The workshop is called, "Reclaiming Futures and Juvenile Drug Courts." It kicks off at 8:30 am EST, and finished up at 4:45 pm EST.
 
To sit in, tune in on Monday, October 10, right here at www.reclaimingfutures.org.
 
At the end of the day, participants will be able to:
•    Define and describe the increasing challenge of substance abuse (and other behavioral health issues) for juvenile offenders.
•    Define and describe Reclaiming Futures as a standard of care to address this challenge.
•    Begin the process of assessing readiness and preparing to retool local juvenile justice responses to substance abuse and delinquency.
•    Take steps to assess community recovery capital and increase direct community engagement options at the local level.  
Can't tune in for the whole thing? Here's our agenda:

Our mantra at Reclaiming Futures sums up our goals for youth in the juvenile justice system: more treatment, better treatment, and beyond treatment.  
While not every young person who uses or abuses drugs and alcohol is addicted, we know that addiction is a disease that usually has its onset in adolescence, so intervening early is important. But the problem is particularly acute in the juvenile justice system, which refers nearly half of all teens who enter publicly-funded substance abuse treatment.
We also know that nearly one in five youth at the door of the juvenile justice system have diagnosable substance abuse disorders-- and that the percentage goes up, the deeper youth penetrate the system. Of youth in post-adjudication placements, 47%  have alcohol and drug disorders.  Furthermore, the groundbreaking Pathways to Desistance research on serious juvenile offenders found that substance use was strongly related to their continued criminal activity.
The good news is that substance abuse programs that involve an individual’s family in the intervention are one of the few things that reduced recidivism. That's why, in the communities we work with, we promote the expansion of treatment – more treatment – and the implementation of evidence-based screening and assessment tools, such as the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs (GAIN) – better treatment.  Many times, trauma or other unmet needs can be a contributing factor in a youth's negative behavior choices and need to be addressed.  

Think you can't dent the school-to-prison pipeline? The Honorable Steven Teske is here to tell you why you should and how you can.
--Okay, he's not here now, but he'll be leading a webinar about it (sponsored by Reclaiming Futures) in September. So, write the date and time down in ink, and pass this on to all your colleagues:

The School-to-Prison Pipeline
September 14, 2011 at 11:00am PDT / 2:00pm EDT

In this webinar, Judge Steven Teske will share the strategies used in Clayton, Georgia to work with the local school district to reduce referrals to juvenile courts, while simultaneously developing school-based strategies to address disruptive behavior.
This collaborative arrangement has reduced serious juvenile crime both at school and in the community, while increasing graduation rates. Judge Teske will also share the importance of making this a community effort by reaching out both to the local media and civic groups to educate them on the effects of referring teens from school to juvenile courts, and the importance of developing strategies in the best interest of our youth.
Update September 20, 2011: You can watch the archived webinar and download the slides and other info here (search for "The School-to Prison-Pipeline," in the "Juvenile Justice Reform" section.)