This program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants and cooperative agreements for training and technical assistance to organizations that OJJDP designates.
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) has a long history of training judicial and court personnel, and this experience, backed by evaluation has been shown to improve services provided to children and families in the juvenile and family court system. The NCJFCJ will address the constellation of factors judges and court personnel need to take into account when working with children and families in the juvenile and family court system. The project will increase awareness and knowledge of the complex issues confronting children, including victims of domestic child sex trafficking, and families served by juvenile and family court systems and the impact prior adverse experiences can have on families over the life- course and across generations. Training and technical assistance (TTA) will provide judges and court personnel with a wide-range of skills to address the diverse and unique needs of families that experience child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, and domestic child sex trafficking. In addition, TTA will focus on improving coordination of cases between agencies, collaborative learning and planning, cultural competency strategies, understanding disproportionality and disparity, employing family engagement strategies and implementing evidence-based practices.
The project will support demonstration sites to implement practices that are informed by evidence. The project goals will be achieved through training for juvenile and family court judges and court personnel, including tribal court judges; in-depth onsite technical assistance; assessment of court practices; and national dissemination of strategies to improve court practice. The NCJFCJ will apply a targeted approach to training that is informed by evaluation. The organization also has the ability to provide direct onsite technical assistance to ensure that learning is translated into practice.
NCA/NCF