OJJDP FY 2017 Smart on Juvenile Justice: Enhancing Youth Access to Justice Initiative: Category 3: Second Chance Act Juvenile Reentry Legal Services

The Fiscal Year 2017 Smart on Juvenile Justice: Enhancing Youth Access to Justice Initiative (hereinafter “Initiative”) aims to further OJJDP’s mission by funding efforts to (1) develop and implement standards of policy and practice to effectively manage well-resourced, statewide juvenile indigent defense systems; (2) develop state or regional resource centers that will help state, tribal, and local juvenile defense systems enhance the quality of legal representation, leverage resources, and collect and analyze data to measure the effectiveness of juvenile defense initiatives; and, (3) support community-based nonprofit organizations that provide direct reentry services, mentoring, and reentry planning to youth in secure confinement or out-of-home placement who are transitioning, or have recently transitioned, back to their families and communities. The goal of Category Three is to fund community-based service providers to offer and deliver reentry services to youth who are reintegrating into communities following secure confinement or out-of-home placement. Awards under Category Three will be made pursuant to Section 211 of the Second Chance Act, 42 USC 17531; Pub. L. No. 115-31, 131 Stat. 135, 204.

The Second Chance Act Juvenile Reentry Services Initiative, a partnership between Lighthouse Youth Services, Inc.’s Hamilton County Reentry Program and the Children’s Law Center’s youth reentry staff attorney, will help youth successfully reintegrate into their communities following secure confinement or out-of-home placement. The Initiative will assist youth and families in maintaining stable housing and will eliminate or mitigate barriers to education placements, employment, and other legal collateral consequences of juvenile justice system involvement. The Initiative will train reentry staff in triaging collateral consequences/needs of youth and will produce products and resources on best practices in the field, the impact of the program on its target population, and local information and guidance for reentering youth, their attorneys, and other relevant system actors about collateral consequences, record expungement/sealing, and other critical information about overcoming barriers to housing, employment, education, and reintegration into society. CA/NCF