Examples and Tools for Planning

During 2021, the Crawford County Youth Justice Improvement Initiative embarked on a comprehensive process to identify the health needs of Crawford County, Kansas. The process included both an extensive review of community data, as well as a gathering of input from a variety of stakeholders, community members, and youth justice system partners. The quantitative and qualitative data led to the development of the Examining the Capacity of the Juvenile Justice System: Crawford County (JD#11) Report. The initiative took information from the report and identified priority needs and related strategies for improvement.

The initiative partnered with the county Juvenile Corrections Advisory Board (JCAB) to review the data, make sense of the needs, and identify potential strategies for improving juvenile justice. The JCASB was chosen and the review group as it had community representation and experience with the youth Justice system. At the early meetings of the Restorative Justice Authority and the JCAB, results from the interviews, surveys and secondary data were shared. Several presentations and guided sensemaking of the results were conducted. In addition, facilitated discussions of tentative recommendations were made. Gaps and disparities in the youth justice system were identified and recommendations to respond to them were made.  Recommendations were rated for importance and feasibility by the working groups. Thirty-six potential community and systems changes were recommended and three were identified as high priority.

Other meetings were held with an at-large group of community stakeholders and three priority strategies were identified and action plans developed for implementation.

Here are selected strategies for changes in the youth justice system identified by the planning group for the initiatives:

  • Increase support for and expand wraparound services (Stepping Up/Family Advocates/Other models for prearrest.
  • Identify and engage community-based programs and alternatives to support reintegration and provide long-term support and positive relationships for youth.
  • Review interaction process with school/community systems and how to improve systems.

Tools and Resources

 

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