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Normally at this time of year, we at the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) are busily preparing for the Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE) – a national conference on teen substance abuse treatment. This would have been our 5th year for the conference, which has steadily grown in size and scope. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to hold the meeting this year, for reasons beyond our control. We do expect, however, to be able to have the meeting again in 2010. 
 
For those of you who may not be familiar with JMATE, you can still view the website from last year, where many of the presentations can be downloaded for your use. There are also links to the earlier meetings and their presentations.

What's the JJDPA or Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA)?  
 
The JJDPA is perhaps best known for its “core requirements.” 
 
First passed in 1974, the JJDPA has for more than 30 years served as the principal vehicle for federal, state and local government to work in partnership on delinquency prevention and improvements in juvenile justice. The federal office devoted to juvenile justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), at U.S. Department of Justice, was established by the JJDPA.
 

• Want a quick orientation to Reclaiming Futures?
• Work for a Reclaiming Futures initiative, and wonder how to do an "elevator speech" about it? 

Check out Dr. Laura Nissen, National Director of Reclaiming Futures, in this brief, 4-minute interview on Comcast Newsmakers. It aired in a break on Comcast's CNN Headline News in late December.

Margaret Soukup, M.A.
PROJECT DIRECTOR, RECLAIMING FUTURES SEATTLE - KING COUNTY

• The Children's Defense Fund has issued its State of America's Children Report for 2008, and it paints a stark picture, indeed. For example, see p. 49 for a graphic representation of how black youth are disproportionately arrested for drug offenses, even though other data indicates they use drugs at the same rate or less than most other teens.

In December, I posted about an overview of the work of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency's (OJJDP) Girls Study Group.
Now, OJJDP has released the first of the Group's detailed reports on best practices with adolescent girls in the justice system.

UPDATE:  Youth Today's John Kelly gives the highlights of the audiocast I linked to below. (Scroll down to the fourth item on his list.)
On January 9th, at 5:18 AM (I assume that's Eastern Time), you can tune into a live audiocast of an interview with Shay Bilchik.  The interview is provided by the Campaign for Youth Justice.

Just before the holidays, The New York Times published an interesting article by Benedict Carey on the state of alcohol and drug treatment, called "Drug Rehabilitation or Revolving Door?"

In mid-December, we hosted our annual Project Director Fellowship in  Washington, D.C. (Click on photo at left to see a larger view of a model of the U.S. Capitol that I spotted at the botanic gardens.) Project Directors from our ten original sites, our first three expansion sites, and all ten of the sites that started this past fall attended. While everyone had gotten acquainted by phone to a certain extent, nothing matches the energy, creativity and momentum of getting together in person to reflect about lessons learned, and create strategy for moving the initiative forward both locally and nationally.

Our agenda included opportunities to: get overviews of each new community joining Reclaiming Futures; compare notes about progress made thus far in sites that begain in 2007; and assess long-term changes that have occurred in the our ten original sites.