Introducing an Equity Learning Series for Juvenile Justice Practitioners and Partners

How can juve­nile jus­tice prac­ti­tion­ers and their com­mu­ni­ty part­ners work togeth­er to make pos­i­tive dif­fer­ences in the lives of Black, Lati­no and Indige­nous youth who have been exposed to the legal sys­tem? 

On Sept. 15, 2021, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion held a vir­tu­al infor­ma­tion ses­sion about its Equi­ty-Focused Learn­ing Series designed to build such teams’ capac­i­ty to advance equi­table prac­tices and poli­cies. The oppor­tu­ni­ties were open to all juris­dic­tions regard­less of their involve­ment in the Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive^® (JDAI) network.

“For teams ready to move toward inspi­ra­tion, insight and imple­men­ta­tion of equi­table prac­tices and poli­cies in juve­nile jus­tice, this learn­ing series is the place,” said Gail D. Mum­ford, a senior asso­ciate at the Foundation.

Reg­is­ter for the Sept. 15 session

What: A 90-minute vir­tu­al infor­ma­tion­al ses­sion about the equi­ty learn­ing series

When: 3–4:30 p.m. ET, Wednes­day, Sept. 15, 2021

Who: The pan­elists served as fac­ul­ty for the series and included:

• James Czar­ni­ak, JCZ Consulting;
• Hasan Stephens, Good Life Youth Foundation;
• Lisa Gar­ry and Tiana Davis, Equi­ty in Prac­tice, LLC; and
• Stephen Chang and Juan Ale­gria, The Nation­al Equi­ty Project.

Reg­is­tra­tion was required.

Offer­ings in the Learn­ing Series

The Equi­ty-Focused Learn­ing Series helps teams explore their readi­ness to under­stand and imple­ment strate­gies that advance equi­table prac­tices and poli­cies. The first offer­ing is a guid­ed self-assessment.

Three-ses­sion ori­en­ta­tion to readi­ness for equi­ty work

This vir­tu­al three-ses­sion series, facil­i­tat­ed by the Nation­al Equi­ty Project, guides par­tic­i­pants through a self-assess­ment process that fun­da­men­tal­ly asks: ​“Are our sys­tem and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners ready to advance an equi­ty agen­da?” If the answer is no, what is nec­es­sary to get ready? The series pro­vides a forum for teams to be frank about the cur­rent state of their equi­ty work and iden­ti­fy areas for growth. The ses­sions were held between Octo­ber and Decem­ber 2021. 

Atten­dance at the ori­en­ta­tion-to-readi­ness ses­sions was required to par­tic­i­pate in either of the learn­ing series described below. 

Go deep­er with Results Count to achieve equi­ty-focused results

Select­ed teams engaged in four ses­sions that will intro­duce the Results Count™ frame­work, a unique set of tools and skills from the Casey Foun­da­tion. The ses­sions helped to estab­lish or strength­en col­lab­o­ra­tion and align­ment between juve­nile jus­tice prac­ti­tion­ers and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners toward youth well-being.

Go deep­er with coach­ing: Move from the­o­ry to practice

Select­ed teams received cus­tomized coach­ing sup­port. This learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty includ­ed tech­ni­cal assis­tance, capac­i­ty build­ing and coach­ing to sup­port imple­men­ta­tion of equi­ty-focused poli­cies and practices.

“The truth is equi­ty work is hard,” Mum­ford said. ​“We hope that by work­ing togeth­er to estab­lish com­mon val­ues, use the Results Count frame­work, name what we want to achieve and mod­i­fy prac­tice as nec­es­sary, we can achieve more pos­i­tive out­comes for Black, Lati­no and Indige­nous youth who encounter the juve­nile jus­tice system.”

Sub­scribe to Casey’s Juve­nile Jus­tice News