Drug Court Discretionary Grant - Juvenile Drug Court Addressing Systematic Barriers Program

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) envisions a nation where our children are healthy, educated, and free from violence. If they come into contact with the juvenile justice system, the contact should be rare, fair, and beneficial to them. To meet this vision, this program will focus on increasing the effectiveness of juvenile drug courts by: (1) supporting programs or strategies that recognize and engage the family as a valued partner in all components of the program; (2) supporting local training programs or teams that educate practitioners and their families to meet the needs of the adolescent client and include adolescent brain development, integrated treatment, trauma-informed care, cultural competency, and strong judicial interaction; (3) supporting the development of local programs that will engage stakeholders and build or enhance partnerships among judges, representatives from behavioral health treatment programs, juvenile justice, social services, school and vocational training programs, law enforcement, probation, prosecution, defense, and community organizations; (4) supporting existing juvenile drug courts to monitor and evaluate current practices to develop strategies to create policies and procedures that will address and provide solutions to identified local barriers and (5) developing and implementing data management systems, including disaggregated data by race and ethnicity of participants.

The Chesterfield/Colonial Heights Juvenile Drug Court (CCHJDC) is one of 37 drug courts in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The CCHJDC program is a specially designed court docket developed for high-risk, but non-violent, substance abusing youth that come before the juvenile court on a drug or drug-related crime. The program exists as part of a larger continuum of services for youth within Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights. The goal of the project is to enhance the capacity of the Chesterfield/Colonial Heights Juvenile Drug Court, and to improve outcomes for the youth involved in the program by supporting family engagement, providing skill-based training, and establishing the capacity to monitor and evaluate current practices. The CCHJDC will partner with the National Center for State Courts for evaluation services and Collaborating Parenting of Richmond and Family and Community Support Systems, LLC for family engagement services. The court will partner with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to provide the statistical expertise needed to fully use this data and to carry out a process and outcome evaluation of the impact of family engagement activities on participant outcomes. Anticipated outcomes of the project will include reduced rates of substance abuse, improved program retention rates and reduced recidivism rates among youth enrolled in the CCHJDC. Deliverables include services to youth and their families, training for project staff and a program evaluation.

CA/NCF