Elkhart County Continuum of Care to Support Youth Success

Elkhart County will implement “Building Elkhart County’s Continuum of Care to Support Youth Success.” Its goal is to identify current weaknesses in the system and plan and assess promising and evidence-based prevention and intervention services that lead to a strengthened community-based continuum of care for youth at risk of becoming, or who are already, involved in the juvenile justice system as well as those transitioning out of it. The project will support better outcomes for youth and families by investing more resources in prevention and intervention programming while reducing recidivism and detention rates. Project activities contribute toward the development of a Community Plan. Activities will include: asset mapping; a gap analysis; Sequential Intercept Mapping (SIM); identification of key data points for tracking and monitoring progress to meet youth needs and reduce youth incarceration rates; assessment of practices that work best to improve youth well-being and prevent juvenile crime; identifying cost savings through reforms that can be reinvested in promising and evidence-based prevention/intervention strategies reducing juvenile crime and recidivism; and integrating and sustaining meaningful youth and family partnerships within the project. Expected outcomes include: having a 1 FTE project director; convening the Juvenile Justice Planning Workgroup (JJPW) comprised of a variety of community stakeholders, including youth and families; incorporating all assessment activities as listed above into a comprehensive community plan which details strengths and weaknesses of the current system and proposes next steps to strengthen our local continuum of care. The comprehensive community plan will include a proposal for a streamlined local referral process and a recommendation for reinvestment of cost-savings into effective programs to support youth and families thus reducing involvement with the juvenile justice system. Elkhart County children and youth at risk of becoming, or who are already, involved in the juvenile justice system are the intended beneficiaries of the project. Oaklawn, the sub-recipient, is responsible for managing and providing all the activities under the project, including relationships with key project partners.