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The Blueprints for Violence Prevention initiative held its annual conference March 17–19, 2008, in Denver, CO. Nancy Ayers, OJJDP's Deputy Administrator for Policy, offered opening remarks.

The Blueprints initiative is headquartered at the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Blueprints reviews violence prevention program evaluations, designates model and promising programs, and provides training and technical assistance in selecting and implementing these programs. OJJDP became an active supporter shortly after the initiative began in 1996 and has provided funding to sponsor program replications in sites across the United States.

In her remarks, Ayers characterized the Blueprints initiative:

Its influence on the field of juvenile justice and youth programming has been far-reaching, not only in providing clear and rigorous guidelines for how to conduct evaluation, but in raising the standards for the funding of programs at the local, State, and Federal levels.

Ayers continued on the subject of evaluation and evidence-based standards:

I am pleased to tell you that among the performance measures that OJJDP tracks—and reports to the Office of Management and Budget—is the percentage of our grantees who are implementing evidence-based programs and practices. I believe we are the only Federal youth-serving agency that reports this information.

In 2006, 46 percent of our grantees were operating evidence-based programs.

OJJDP has incorporated language in all of our solicitations for grant applications that strongly urges applicants to institute evidence-based programs and practices. As a result, we at OJJDP anticipate that the number of our grantees who embrace evidence-based programming will continue to grow.

Ayers concluded by noting that OJJDP chose the Blueprints conference to distribute advance copies of the first in a series of bulletins on the findings from OJJDP's Girls Study Group.

OJJDP convened the study group to broaden understanding of the risk and protective factors associated with female juvenile offending and the consequences for youth involved in such offending. The group also is working to identify effective strategies for communities to use in their efforts to prevent and reduce female involvement in delinquency and violence.

OJJDP is excited by the findings from the study group, which show, among other things, that although the rate of girls entering the juvenile justice system has increased, the actual incidence of their being seriously violent has not changed much over the last two decades. OJJDP hopes these findings will spark further research and discussion about the context and circumstances of girls in the juvenile justice system.

For more on the Girls Study Group Bulletin series see the Blueprints Conference 2008 Web site.