Training Opportunity: Family-Engaged Case Planning in Youth Probation

Local juve­nile pro­ba­tion depart­ments can apply now for in-per­son and vir­tu­al train­ing to imple­ment the fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning mod­el in youth pro­ba­tion. The inter­est form is due on May 28.

Under the mod­el, pro­ba­tion offi­cers work in part­ner­ship with young peo­ple and their fam­i­lies to craft indi­vid­u­al­ized goals and update and expand upon those goals as suc­cess­es and chal­lenges arise. Through­out the process, they build con­nec­tions with com­mu­ni­ty-based sup­port and ser­vices. This approach and the larg­er vision for trans­form­ing juve­nile pro­ba­tion align with what research shows about youth devel­op­ment and what works to fos­ter long-term behav­ior change and safety.

“Pro­ba­tion depart­ments across the coun­try are increas­ing­ly acknowl­edg­ing the need to part­ner with youth and fam­i­lies more authen­ti­cal­ly,” said Steve Bish­op, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion’s asso­ciate direc­tor for pro­ba­tion and sys­tem trans­for­ma­tion. ​“Imple­ment­ing the fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning mod­el is a direct and pow­er­ful way to turn talk into action.”

Five juris­dic­tions com­plet­ed the train­ing in 2024:

• St. Louis Coun­ty, Missouri; 
• Franklin Coun­ty (Colum­bus), Ohio; 
• Cook Coun­ty (Chica­go), Illinois; 
• River­side, Cal­i­for­nia; and 
• Maine.

Express Inter­est in this Train­ing Opportunity

About the Training

The train­ing is designed for teams of juve­nile pro­ba­tion pro­fes­sion­als and their com­mu­ni­ty part­ners. For those inter­est­ed in con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion cred­its, it is approved by the Amer­i­can Pro­ba­tion and Parole Asso­ci­a­tion for 20 con­tact hours.

The course con­sists of five mod­ules — one held vir­tu­al­ly and four deliv­ered in per­son. Mod­ules will run between Octo­ber and Novem­ber 2025, fol­lowed by local imple­men­ta­tion plan­ning and ongo­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion and coach­ing through­out 2026.

The cur­ricu­lum cov­ers the par­tic­u­lars of the fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning mod­el and reflects the con­tri­bu­tions of prac­ti­tion­ers, fam­i­ly mem­bers and young peo­ple. It includes:

• iden­ti­fy­ing a young person’s cir­cle of care;
• ele­vat­ing a young person’s strengths and aspirations;
• con­nect­ing with com­mu­ni­ty-based sup­port and services;
• ensur­ing that goals are rel­e­vant, action­able and craft­ed collaboratively;
• cel­e­brat­ing suc­cess; and
• prob­lem-solv­ing and pivoting.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing juris­dic­tions receive the fol­low­ing, free of charge:

• approx­i­mate­ly 30 hours of fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning train­ing, deliv­ered by Harley Con­sult­ing Group and a team of train­ers fund­ed by the Casey Foundation;
• tools and resources to sup­port the imple­men­ta­tion of fam­i­ly-engaged case planning;
• fol­low-up coach­ing and sup­port (a min­i­mum of eight hours from a tech­ni­cal assis­tance provider over a year); and
• access to a net­work of juris­dic­tions also work­ing on trans­form­ing their local juve­nile jus­tice systems.

Those seek­ing train­ing on pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion more broad­ly or as a basis for fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning should con­sid­er Casey’s online pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion train­ing series.

Time­line

Esti­mat­ed time­line (sub­ject to change):

• May 28 — dead­line for sub­mis­sion of inter­est form
• June 12 — juris­dic­tions learn if they have been selected
• July 18 — site team ros­ter is finalized
• July (TBD) — pre-launch ses­sion (vir­tu­al)
• Octo­ber (TBD) — mod­ule 1 (vir­tu­al)
• Nov. 4–7 — mod­ules 2–5 (in-per­son in Baltimore)
• Decem­ber (TBD) — post-course plan­ning ses­sion (vir­tu­al)
• March 31, 2026 — site work plans due

Eli­gi­bil­i­ty Cri­te­ria and Expec­ta­tions for Par­tic­i­pat­ing Teams

Any pro­ba­tion depart­ment can apply for this oppor­tu­ni­ty. The juris­dic­tion must be able to estab­lish a team with the fol­low­ing composition:

• Six indi­vid­u­als, including: 
  1. one high-lev­el pro­ba­tion admin­is­tra­tor with the author­i­ty to make pol­i­cy and prac­tice changes;
  2. three pro­ba­tion prac­ti­tion­ers (two pro­ba­tion offi­cers and a super­vi­sor or vice ver­sa); and
  3. two com­mu­ni­ty part­ners (a young per­son with pri­or expe­ri­ence on pro­ba­tion, a fam­i­ly mem­ber of a young per­son with pri­or expe­ri­ence on pro­ba­tion and/​or a com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tion or leader who works direct­ly with, and on behalf of, young peo­ple on probation).
• The team mem­bers should: 
  1. pos­sess a strong ori­en­ta­tion to equi­ty and well-being for young peo­ple and fam­i­lies who face the steep­est bar­ri­ers to success;
  2. have a will­ing­ness to build part­ner­ships with young peo­ple, fam­i­ly mem­bers and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers; and
  3. be action-ori­ent­ed, bold and able to use influ­ence and lead­er­ship to make changes in their system.
• Team mem­bers must be able to com­plete Casey’s online pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion train­ing series between July and Sep­tem­ber, pri­or to the launch of the fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning train­ing course. The esti­mat­ed time required to com­plete the full series is 12 hours per indi­vid­ual, though indi­vid­ual pac­ing may vary.
• Team mem­bers attend, active­ly par­tic­i­pate in and com­plete all required assign­ments for the fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning train­ing course between Octo­ber and Novem­ber.
• The juris­dic­tion (team mem­bers and agency lead­er­ship) intends to imple­ment fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning fol­low­ing the train­ing. Giv­en that each juris­dic­tion will need to plan and tai­lor what works best for it, sites are not expect­ed to adopt the full fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning mod­el imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing the train­ing. How­ev­er, it is expect­ed that juris­dic­tions cre­ate a detailed work plan for their local fam­i­ly case plan­ning trans­for­ma­tion, includ­ing the steps and time­line need­ed to get there. Coach­ing and sup­port from nation­al train­ers will be avail­able to devel­op the work plan.
• The jurisdiction’s team par­tic­i­pates in post-train­ing cross-site update calls.
• The juris­dic­tion cov­ers trav­el and lodg­ing costs for all pro­ba­tion team mem­bers for the Nov. 4–7 Bal­ti­more-based mod­ules. Casey will cov­er trav­el costs for com­mu­ni­ty team members.
• The juris­dic­tion pro­vides stipends or oth­er ways to hon­or the time and exper­tise of com­mu­ni­ty part­ners on the team dur­ing the work plan­ning and imple­men­ta­tion process. Casey will pro­vide stipends to com­mu­ni­ty team mem­bers dur­ing the training.

“Fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning is prac­ti­cal,” said Tymesha Buck­n­er-Dobynes, direc­tor of delin­quen­cy ser­vices at the St. Louis Coun­ty Fam­i­ly Court. ​“Treat­ing fam­i­lies as active part­ners in the case man­age­ment process builds stronger sup­port net­works for young peo­ple on probation.”

Express Inter­est in This Train­ing Opportunity

See a Pre­view of the Appli­ca­tion Questions

Resources on Fam­i­ly-Engaged Case Planning

• Guide: Fam­i­ly-Engaged Case Plan­ning for Youth on Probation
• Frame­work and tool help juve­nile jus­tice agen­cies treat fam­i­lies as partners
• Webi­nar on fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning in youth pro­ba­tion (2022)
• Webi­nar series on fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning in youth pro­ba­tion (2024)