National Center on the Sexual Behavior of Youth: Training and Technical Assistance for Comprehensive Community Response to Problematic and Illegal Sexual Behavior of Youth

Since 2010, OJJDP has funded over 30 project sites to implement comprehensive, coordinated, community-based evidence-based practices for children and adolescents with problematic sexual behavior (PSB), child victims, and their caregivers. Remarkably, each of the sites have been successful at addressing multiple agency, system, and policy level barriers to establish effective procedures, policies and programs that are fair and just and support the identification, referral, access, and engagement in evidence-based practice. To facilitate their success, training and technical assistance (T/TA) has been provided through the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center’s National Center on the Sexual Behavior of Youth (NCSBY). Comprehensive T/TA provided by NCSBY has and will continue to include intensive clinical training in evidence-based practice for youth with PSB as well as T/TA and resources to identify and overcome barriers, adapt efforts to fit communities’ resources and needs, facilitate community collaboration, dispel myths held by the community, and enhance family engagement in services. Building on previous success, NCSBY will provide T/TA to the four additional programs sites and currently funded sites to reach their goals to (a) establish community-based management and evidence-based practice for youth with PSB, victims, and families, and (b) improve the community’s coordination of services through multidisciplinary teams. To support T/TA for these sites, NCSBY will collaborate with a team of consultants who have expertise in juvenile justice, prosecution, cultural congruent services, implementation, and community change teams. NCSBY will work with each of the four awardees early in Year 01 to examine current community-based management systems and identify barriers and supports to evidence-based practice implementation and sustainability. Short-term and intermediate T/TA needs to reach specific program goals will be developed for each of the sites. T/TA provided will include onsite, online, and multimedia modality and open discussion during the cross-site meeting and subsequent online meetings. Data on the provision of T/TA will be regularly collected, including quantity, quality, and impact of T/TA, following all OJJDP requirements. Progress towards goals will be regularly assessed, with an emphasis on sustainability plans in Year 02. Final reports will document progress, lessons learned, and recommendations for next steps. Further, a Culturally Responsive Practice Guide will be developed with other deliverables relevant to professionals, caregivers, and youth across the United States in collaboration with consultants, OJJDP and the Caregiver and Youth Partnership Boards. These deliverables will be disseminated, such as through OJJDP portals, the NCSBY.org website, and peer-review publications.