Center for Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice

The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy (CJJR), in partnership with the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) and the Center for Children’s Law and Policy (CCLP), proposes to establish and operate the Center for Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice (herein “Center”). The purpose of the Center is support the field to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities (R/ED) faced by youth of color in the youth legal system. The Center has four main objectives: (1) strengthen state and territory-level compliance with the reducing R/ED core requirement of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act; (2) develop and implement comprehensive training and technical assistance (TTA) that supports state, territorial, Tribal, and community-level efforts to reduce R/ED; (3) meaningfully partner with youth and families to lead efforts to reduce R/ED and transform the youth legal system; and (4) increase the knowledge base of practitioners, stakeholders, and partners on strategies to reduce R/ED in order to inspire systemic reform. Project activities include: (1) creation and operation of the first-ever Youth and Family Expert Advisory Council to End R/ED; (2) TTA for formula grant recipients to support compliance with the R/ED Core Requirement, including development and operation of the R/ED Core Requirement Compliance Training Series; (3) TTA for the youth justice field at large to inspire innovative approaches to end R/ED, including development and operation of the Ending R/ED Innovation Lab; (4) development of written and online resources aimed at ending R/ED, including the Technical Assistance Manual on Compliance with the R/ED Core Requirement, Toolkit on Promising Strategies to End R/ED and Promote Racial Equity and Justice, Lessons Learned from the Ending R/ED Innovation Lab Report and a series of related national webinars; (5) management of a subject matter expert pool to provide TTA on ending R/ED; and (6) convening leaders at CJJ’s National Reducing R/ED Conference to further inspire innovation and community-building among individuals who are leading the charge to end R/ED. Expected outcomes include: increased field knowledge and implementation of promising, research-driven and evidence-based strategies to reduce R/ED; enhanced state- and territory-level R/ED Reduction Plan development and implementation; and increased understanding of the vital importance of youth and family partnerships in addressing R/ED. Subrecipients CJJ and CCLP, and several subject matter expert consultants, will support various dimensions of the Center’s work, including the core activities related to TTA, resource development and conference administration.