Families First: Improving Outcomes for Youth in Juvenile Drug Court (JDC) Project

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 Massachusetts Executive Office of the Trial Court (EOTC) in collaboration with the Bristol County Sheriff's Office the Trial Court will implement the Families First: Improving Outcomes for Youth in Juvenile Drug Court (JDC) Project. The project will expand the capacity of the Bristol County Juvenile Drug Court to address barriers and improve behavioral health by reducing alcohol and/or substance use among juvenile offenders, and leveraging technical assistance conducted with support of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Through this project, EOTC will address current JDC barriers associated with family engagement services, case management services staffing, monitoring and evaluation, and data collection. The project will target JDC juveniles and their families where behavioral health is a chronic, debilitating issue. CA/NCF