Apply for the 2022 Reimagining Juvenile Justice Training-for-Trainers Institute

A pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment ini­tia­tive for state and local agen­cies serv­ing youth involved in the jus­tice sys­tem and their part­ners is accept­ing appli­ca­tions for the 2022 Reimag­in­ing Juve­nile Jus­tice (RJJ) Train­ing-for-Train­ers Insti­tute. Spon­sored by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion and deliv­ered by the School & Main Insti­tute, this train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty is based on pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment, which encour­ages youth-serv­ing pro­fes­sion­als to iden­ti­fy the pos­i­tive aspects of a young person’s life and build on those strengths and interests.

View the FAQ

Appli­ca­tions must be received by 5 p.m. ET, July 22, 2022. Inter­est­ed appli­cants should watch a one-hour webi­nar from June 28 to pre­pare for the process.

The RJJ Train­ing-for-Train­ers Insti­tute is open to rep­re­sen­ta­tives of state or local pub­lic sys­tems serv­ing youth involved in the jus­tice sys­tem, such as courts, pro­ba­tion agen­cies or law enforce­ment. Pref­er­ence will be giv­en to appli­ca­tions that are sub­mit­ted joint­ly by a pub­lic sys­tem and a local non-sys­tem part­ner. Appli­cants should be seek­ing to improve sys­tem and youth out­comes by pro­vid­ing alter­na­tives to jus­tice sys­tem involve­ment and incar­cer­a­tion; instill­ing pos­i­tive pro­grams, sup­port and oppor­tu­ni­ties so that young peo­ple can devel­op to their full poten­tial; and increas­ing cross-sys­tem collaboration.

The 2022 insti­tute is the fifth iter­a­tion of the RJJ cur­ricu­lum, which was pilot­ed by SMI in Mass­a­chu­setts in 2016, repli­cat­ed at the Pima Coun­ty, Ari­zona, JDAI^® site in 2018 and expand­ed to a nation­al train-the-train­er insti­tute in 2019 and 2020.

The RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers (T4T) Insti­tute in 2022

In 2022, the RJJ Train­ing-for-Train­ers Insti­tute will be deliv­ered in two phas­es to teams from up to 12 jurisdictions.

• Phase 1 is for three to five train­ers per juris­dic­tion. This phase will be con­duct­ed vir­tu­al­ly from Aug. 30, 2022, through Oct. 11, 2022. It includes a 60-minute ​“Intro to RJJ” ori­en­ta­tion and six 90-minute facil­i­tat­ed vir­tu­al ses­sions held at week­ly inter­vals that cov­er the six RJJ cur­ricu­lum mod­ules.
• Phase 2 is for two train­ers per juris­dic­tion (each juris­dic­tion will select two from among its atten­dees of Phase I). The two train­ers will attend an in-per­son 2½-day Train­ing-for-Train­ers (T4T) Insti­tute in Den­ver Oct. 18–20, 2022. At the Insti­tute, train­ers will study adult teach­ing and learn­ing prin­ci­ples; hear from cur­rent RJJ train­ers about their own expe­ri­ences with imple­men­ta­tion and results; and devel­op RJJ roll-out plans for local deliv­ery. Fol­low­ing the RJJ T4T Insti­tute, the jurisdiction’s team of train­ers will be paired with a nation­al coach to help sup­port local imple­men­ta­tion strategies.

Select­ed train­ers will deliv­er the six RJJ cur­ricu­lum mod­ules in their local­i­ty between Novem­ber 2022 and April 2023 and pro­vide eval­u­a­tions and feed­back to the Casey Foun­da­tion and School & Main.

The RJJ train­ing cur­ricu­lum is based on ado­les­cent devel­op­ment research demon­strat­ing that youth thrive in a pos­i­tive envi­ron­ment with the sup­port of car­ing adults. Through 2021, RJJ train­ers have deliv­ered the course to 800 pro­fes­sion­als rep­re­sent­ing a broad array of agen­cies and orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing pro­ba­tion, juve­nile deten­tion, child wel­fare, youth and fam­i­ly ser­vices, courts, local law enforce­ment, school dis­tricts, com­mu­ni­ty-based agen­cies and oth­ers involved in the youth jus­tice system.

“Many of the juris­dic­tions that have imple­ment­ed the RJJ train­ing over the past few years have made sig­nif­i­cant progress incor­po­rat­ing the prin­ci­ples of pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment into their local poli­cies and prac­tice,” said David E. Brown, a senior asso­ciate at the Foun­da­tion. ​“Many have changed the way they inter­act with young peo­ple and their fam­i­lies, expand­ed con­struc­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties and built or strength­ened part­ner­ships with oth­er youth-serv­ing systems.”

One of the par­tic­i­pants, Corey Shrieve, the JDAI coor­di­na­tor in Ohio’s Depart­ment of Youth Ser­vices, said RJJ train­ing is ​“about shift­ing peo­ples’ beliefs from pun­ish­ment and com­pli­ance to pro­vid­ing pos­i­tive incen­tives that pro­mote the growth of young peo­ple.” Says Shrieve: ​“We can see this change hap­pen­ing in pro­ba­tion and in the courts’ will­ing­ness to divert more kids than ever before.”

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, con­tact David E. Brown at debrown@​aecf.​org.

Vis­it the RJJ 5.0 FAQ