Call for Nominations for 2019 JDAI Awards

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion is seek­ing nom­i­na­tions for five nation­al awards that acknowl­edge com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions, gov­ern­ment sys­tem lead­ers and juve­nile pro­ba­tion offi­cers who have made extra­or­di­nary con­tri­bu­tions to juve­nile jus­tice reform.

Hon­orees will be announced and cel­e­brat­ed at Casey’s 2019 Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive® (JDAI) Inter-Site Con­fer­ence in Seat­tle, Octo­ber 16–18.

Nom­i­na­tions are open through August 23 in five award categories:

The Natal­ie S. Bimel Award:
Rec­og­niz­ing out­stand­ing com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers in youth jus­tice reform

The award rec­og­nizes com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers who ded­i­cate them­selves to the well-being of local res­i­dents and young peo­ple in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem. The award’s name­sake estab­lished sev­er­al high­ly regard­ed pro­grams that reduced reliance on incar­cer­a­tion and helped return­ing cit­i­zens suc­cess­ful­ly reen­ter the com­mu­ni­ty. Bimel passed away in 2004, short­ly after direct­ing a film about the ear­ly imple­men­ta­tion of JDAI, These Are Our Kids: Trans­form­ing Juve­nile Deten­tion in Three Amer­i­can Cities.

Pri­or recip­i­ents of the award include William Bar­ton, Rick Velasquez, Melvin Carter, Tar­sha Jack­son, Richard Elias and, most recent­ly, William Rodriguez.

The Glo­ria J. Jenk­ins Award:
Hon­or­ing out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to reform by a com­mu­ni­ty-based organization

Ide­al nom­i­nees iden­ti­fy and respond to social jus­tice or local con­cerns with com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven, inno­v­a­tive and sus­tain­able solu­tions, often influ­enc­ing poli­cies and prac­tices that improve youth well-being. The award’s name­sake and her hus­band, Eddie, estab­lished the West­side Asso­ci­a­tion for Com­mu­ni­ty Action (WACA) in Chica­go to enhance the well-being of local res­i­dents through advo­ca­cy, direct ser­vices and com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment. When deten­tion reform began in Cook Coun­ty, Illi­nois, in the ear­ly 1990s, WACA estab­lished the first evening report­ing cen­ter in the JDAI net­work, an inno­va­tion that has since been repli­cat­ed across the coun­try. Pri­or recip­i­ents include Fam­i­ly and Friends of Louisiana’s Incar­cer­at­ed Chil­dren, the Com­mu­ni­ty Jus­tice Net­work for Youth, the Juve­nile Law Cen­ter, the Mis­souri Juve­nile Jus­tice Asso­ci­a­tion, Youth Advo­cate Pro­grams, Inc. and, most recent­ly, Com­mu­ni­ty Con­nec­tions for Youth.

The JDAI Dis­tin­guished Sys­tem Lead­er­ship Award:
Rec­og­niz­ing indi­vid­u­als, or teams, who have lever­aged data and inno­v­a­tive part­ner­ships to real­ize last­ing juve­nile jus­tice reforms

Ide­al nom­i­nees for this award — the high­est Foun­da­tion hon­or for JDAI work ― have been instru­men­tal in help­ing imple­ment the JDAI core strate­gies with fideli­ty. Pri­or recip­i­ents include Dane Bolin, Jen­nifer LeBaron, Deb­o­rah Hodges, Steven David and, most recent­ly, Lisa Gar­ry, Toni Carter and Kurt Wolf.

The What­ev­er It Takes Award:
Hon­or­ing out­stand­ing juve­nile pro­ba­tion offi­cers in JDAI sites

New to the Inter-Site Con­fer­ence, this award was inspired by the sto­ries of local action and inno­va­tion fea­tured in the Foun­da­tion report Trans­form­ing Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion: A Vision for Get­ting It Right, which encour­aged the JDAI net­work to rethink how tra­di­tion­al pro­ba­tion serves youth. Bestowed for the first time at the 2018 JDAI Deep End Con­fer­ence, the award rec­og­nizes offi­cers who have giv­en their time, ener­gy, cre­ativ­i­ty and com­pas­sion to do ​“what­ev­er it takes” to keep young peo­ple con­nect­ed with the nat­ur­al sources of sup­port with­in their fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties. Thus far, 10 offi­cers from coun­ties in Indi­ana, Min­neso­ta, Mis­souri, Ohio and Wash­ing­ton State have been recognized.

Tran­si­tion Award:
Spot­light­ing key indi­vid­u­als work­ing in JDAI sites who are retir­ing or chang­ing careers, or who have passed way

Ide­al nom­i­nees have exem­pli­fied extra­or­di­nary lead­er­ship in JDAI, engag­ing their peers and part­ners to imple­ment JDAI’s core strate­gies and/​or advance pol­i­cy reform. These indi­vid­u­als may include, but are not lim­it­ed to, JDAI coor­di­na­tors, pro­ba­tion chiefs, direc­tors, judges and tech­ni­cal assis­tance providers.

How to Sub­mit a JDAI Awards Nomination

The nom­i­na­tion form can be found on JDAIcon­nect, the online com­mu­ni­ty for the JDAI net­work and any­one inter­est­ed in youth jus­tice reform. Reg­is­ter for a free account at JDAIcon­nect. Nom­i­na­tors may sub­mit mul­ti­ple can­di­dates using sep­a­rate forms for each.