Furtherance of the Program Enhancement Process (PEP) quality improvement inititive and delivery of medical care at the Genesis work program.

The Utah Division of Juvenile Justice Services has a quality improvement initiative known as PEP; the acronym stands for Program Enhancement Process. Through the initiative's success the Division can better achieve its vision of helping at-risk youth and can better achieve its mission of providing comprehensive services within the framework of the Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) model. Under the PEP initiative, Division Case Management, Programs, and Contract Service Providers measure performance with key service objectives and key outcome objectives in each of the three BARJ focus areas of 1) community protection, 2) offender accountability to victims, and 3) offender competency development for successful living. Each of the Division's program arms--Early Intervention Services, Community Programs, Rural Programs, and Correctional Facilities--have a PEP program manager to facilitate the implementation of PEP. Within the Division these program managers are known as 'liaisons.' Also, a graduate student has provided temporary assistance with PEP development.

1. The Early Intervention Services PEP Program Manager will effectively use newly developed techniques to audit the implementation of PEP.
Performance measure: At least two audits of PEP implementation will be conducted using newly developed auditing techniques.
2. The keys to successful implementation of PEP will be identified and described.

Performance measure: Five to ten key elements will be identified across all of the examples of successful implementation that are discovered.
3. PEP implementation findings will be summarized and key Early Intervention Services management and non-management staff will be informed of the results so PEP can be more fully integrated into Early Intervention Services' operations.
Performance measure: The Early Intervention Services PEP Program Manager will provide training (with written summaries) to key Early Intervention Services management and non-management staff on implementing PEP effectively.
4. PEP information system processes will be enhanced through 1) securing external analysis and validation of current tools and approaches used and 2) furthering development of desirable new and existing information management tools.
Performance measure: A graduate student from the University of Utah Department of Psychology, School of Behavioral Sciences will develop a generalized ad-hoc query tool to graphically and statistically depict PEP report data.

NCA/NCF