This program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants and cooperative agreements for training and technical assistance to organizations that OJJDP designates. Through the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the OJJDP Improving Law Enforcement Responses to Youth Training and Technical Assistance Project, has provided no-cost, trauma-informed, developmentally-appropriate TTA resources to law enforcement and allied stakeholders for nearly two decades. By providing continuation funding for this effort, the OJJDP is fulfilling recommendations of both the National Research Councils Implementing Juvenile Justice Report and the Attorney Generals Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence. Using these funds, the IACP will provide training in adolescent development, developmentally-appropriate and trauma-informed responses, de-escalation, diversion, risk assessment, responding to adolescent girls, and school/justice collaborations to improve law enforcements capacity to effectively respond to, and proactively engage with, youth.
The IACP proposes to continue to provide expert assistance in methods to improve law enforcements ability to minimize juvenile delinquency and victimization by providing police officers with instructional courses and web-based tools to better understand the importance of their role and impact on juveniles during, or in response to, policing situations and their ability to positively influence youth. This expert assistance will enable law enforcement to better understand important trends and emerging methods in policing youth. To meet this goal, the IACP will 1) Provide instructional TTA support by delivering online learning courses that promote performance improvement among police officers who work with youth and are based on the adult learning and experiential paradigm; 2) Conduct impact evaluations to assess the general learning experience from the training and, after a three-four month interval, measuring learning transference including participants perceptions of how their job performance has changed as a result of the TTA and the impact that these changes bring to their sector or division; and 3) Produce, market, and disseminate information and resources to assist law enforcement in effectively addressing youth crime, victimization, and delinquency; and to help officers better engage with youth utilizing developmentally-appropriate approaches.
NCA/NCF
