Court Coordination Program

The Court Coordination Project (CCP) will enable the court to coordinate with other community, youth-serving agencies on particularly problematic cases by employing a court coordinator, who will report directly to the juvenile court judge. This court coordinator will seek to make complex juvenile court cases a priority for local service providers (including public and private community mental health, social services, education, and health agencies). Courts involved in the program will also receive training and technical assistance designed to help them assume a leadership role in their local service delivery systems. The project as a whole will allow OJJDP to assess the value of a court-coordination approach as an alternative to increasing specialization in juvenile court mandates.

The proposed approach has its roots in the various 'wraparound' programs currently operating around the country. Wraparound initiatives sponsored by state social service, education, and mental health agencies (such as such as Wraparound Milwaukee and the Alaska Youth Initiative) have had significant success providing placement, treatment, and services to youths known to the juvenile court (NMHA, 2004; Burns and Goldman, 1999).

The responsibilities of DSG, Inc. under this project include: 1) providing overall fiscal management and oversight for CCP; 2) coordinating all conference and training logistics for the project; and 3) contributing subject matter expertise and specialized training and technical assistance (T&TA) on an as-needed basis.

NCA/NCF