Scholarship Opportunity for Juvenile Justice Professionals

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion is spon­sor­ing 10 schol­ar­ships for top offi­cials in juve­nile jus­tice agen­cies to attend the Amer­i­can Pro­ba­tion and Parole Association’s (APPA) Exec­u­tive Sum­mit of Com­mu­ni­ty Cor­rec­tions Lead­ers. The vir­tu­al event runs week­ly from Sept. 14 to Nov. 5, 2021.

Direc­tors and chiefs of agen­cies with few­er than 100 staff are eli­gi­ble for the schol­ar­ships. The schol­ar­ships are intend­ed for lead­ers of rel­a­tive­ly small­er agen­cies to make train­ing more acces­si­ble to lead­ers oper­at­ing with small­er bud­gets. Regard­less of agency size, this is a train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty for pro­ba­tion lead­ers who want to move their agen­cies from a cul­ture of sur­veil­lance and pun­ish­ment toward more effec­tive respons­es when young peo­ple vio­late the law.

Apply for a Schol­ar­ship to Attend the APPA’s Exec­u­tive Lead­er­ship Summit

“The aspi­ra­tion is that all young peo­ple — no mat­ter their race, eth­nic­i­ty, gen­der or neigh­bor­hood — can real­ize their poten­tial, even when they make mis­takes,” says Opal West, a pro­gram asso­ciate at the Foundation. 

The schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents will par­tic­i­pate in two ses­sions per week for six weeks pre­sent­ed in part­ner­ship between APPA and the Casey Foun­da­tion. Lead­ers should expect to devel­op a strate­gic plan to guide their change efforts; increase their under­stand­ing of them­selves as agents for change; and build their capac­i­ty to del­e­gate effec­tive­ly by align­ing oth­ers around shared goals. Specif­i­cal­ly, the ses­sions will offer guid­ance on how to lead teams, cre­ate a learn­ing envi­ron­ment, mea­sure suc­cess and com­mu­ni­cate effectively.

As part of the appli­ca­tion process, can­di­dates must explain how the exec­u­tive sum­mit can improve their lead­er­ship with­in the field of juve­nile jus­tice — includ­ing their efforts to pro­mote pos­i­tive behav­ior change, per­son­al growth and the long-term suc­cess of young people.

Some impor­tant dead­lines and dates:

• Aug. 8, 2021: Appli­ca­tions due
• Aug. 20, 2021: Schol­ar­ship noti­fi­ca­tions complete
• Sept. 14 to Nov. 5, 2021: Exec­u­tive Lead­er­ship Summit
• By Feb. 3, 2022: All schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents fill out a short sur­vey describ­ing the training’s effects on their pro­fes­sion­al roles

Each schol­ar­ship recip­i­ent must sub­mit their own reg­is­tra­tion form, attend ses­sions and have access to vir­tu­al train­ing equip­ment, such as a com­put­er. The schol­ar­ship cov­ers the summit’s reg­is­tra­tion fee. If the recip­i­ent has paid the fee in advance, APPA will reim­burse the payee.

For more infor­ma­tion, go to APPA or con­tact Travis John­son at the Coun­cil of State Governments.

Read More About Casey’s Vision for Trans­form­ing Juve­nile Probation

Check Out the Casey-Fund­ed Prac­tice Guide for the Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion Field