Youth Justice Leaders Achieve Results

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Applied Lead­er­ship Net­work (ALN) is a rig­or­ous 18-month pro­gram that devel­ops lead­ers com­mit­ted to advanc­ing youth-cen­tered reforms with­in the jus­tice sys­tem. The most recent ALN cohort brought togeth­er cross-sec­tor teams from four juris­dic­tions — Puer­to Rico; San­ta Cruz Coun­ty, Cal­i­for­nia; Shel­by Coun­ty, Ten­nessee; and Westch­ester Coun­ty, New York — to iden­ti­fy, test and scale strate­gies that help young peo­ple involved in the jus­tice sys­tem thrive in their homes, schools and communities.

A cor­ner­stone of ALN’s approach is Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) — a con­tin­u­ous improve­ment cycle root­ed in the Foundation’s Results Count^® frame­work. This method enables lead­ers to pilot promis­ing changes on a small scale, assess impact and refine their strate­gies before expand­ing them.

Par­tic­i­pant Rubén I. Colón Del­ga­do, a restora­tive men­tor in Puer­to Rico, called the cur­ricu­lum ​“a very sol­id tool box to step up your game of engag­ing part­ners and com­mu­ni­ties to achieve results.”

“ALN is an avenue to help juve­nile jus­tice sys­tems and com­mu­ni­ties work in part­ner­ship to under­stand — and sat­is­fy — the basic needs and aspi­ra­tions of young peo­ple who encounter the legal sys­tem,” said Gail D. Mum­ford, a Foun­da­tion senior asso­ciate.​“ALNers work to rec­og­nize and dis­man­tle the struc­tur­al bar­ri­ers in the way of young peo­ple hav­ing the sup­port, con­nec­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties they need to succeed.”

Plan-Do-Study-Act

PDSA is a cycli­cal approach to improv­ing a process or out­come. Once a prac­ti­tion­er iden­ti­fies an improve­ment that can be assessed over a set peri­od of time, they then:

1. Plan: Devel­op a small test of change — a way to test a pro­posed change on a small scale before using it more widely.
2. Do: Imple­ment the plan. 
3. Study: Observe the results.
4. Act: Make adjust­ments before the cycle’s next iteration.

Read on for how each ALN team used the PDSA approach to test its strategy. 

Puer­to Rico

Plan

• Reduce tru­an­cy by 25% among eco­nom­i­cal­ly dis­ad­van­taged youth ages 13–18 in South Puer­to Rico by Decem­ber 2026.
• Col­lab­o­rate with the ​“back home team” to meet with stu­dents and fam­i­lies, val­i­dat­ing root caus­es and influ­ences on truancy.
• Imple­ment men­tor­ing as a strat­e­gy based on its known pos­i­tive impact on atten­dance, par­tic­i­pa­tion and graduation.
• Select Jar­dines de Ponce Pub­lic High School for a small-scale pilot, tar­get­ing 18 stu­dents at high risk of truancy.

Do

• Pilot the men­tor­ing pro­gram at the school by deliv­er­ing ser­vices direct­ly on-site to elim­i­nate trans­porta­tion barriers.
• Engage com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and the Puer­to Rico Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion for support.

Study

• Observe and assess ear­ly out­comes, focus­ing on stu­dent engage­ment and changes in attendance.
• Part­ner with a local orga­ni­za­tion to track the pilot’s effects on school atten­dance data.

Act

• Sus­tain the change — school staff com­mit to con­tin­ue and lead the on-site men­tor­ing program.
• Use lessons from this test to con­sid­er expand­ing or adapt­ing the men­tor­ing mod­el to oth­er schools or stu­dent groups.

San­ta Cruz Coun­ty, California

Plan

• Reduce court refer­rals and increase com­mu­ni­ty-based diver­sion in Watsonville.
• Ana­lyze data and con­firm pat­terns with input from the Youth and Fam­i­ly Advi­so­ry Coun­cil.
• Train pro­ba­tion intake staff to refer eli­gi­ble youth to cul­tur­al­ly respon­sive local ser­vices instead of court.
• Iden­ti­fy gaps in com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices, map avail­able pro­grams and assess trans­porta­tion access.

Do

• Launch a small-scale pilot in which a few young peo­ple are referred by pro­ba­tion intake staff to the Com­mu­ni­ty Action Board instead of the court.
• Engage with local youth-serv­ing orga­ni­za­tions to build part­ner­ships and expand diver­sion services.

Study

• Mon­i­tor ini­tial out­comes of referred youth (e.g., engage­ment with ser­vices, sat­is­fac­tion, avoid­ance of fur­ther sys­tem involvement).
• Col­lect feed­back from intake staff, youth, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ty partners.
• Ana­lyze whether the diver­sion approach is effec­tive­ly meet­ing youth needs and align­ing with cul­tur­al and com­mu­ni­ty context.

Act

• Use insights from the pilot to refine refer­ral cri­te­ria, ser­vice con­nec­tions and staff training.
• Scale up the pro­gram by expand­ing part­ner­ships and for­mal­iz­ing diver­sion pathways.
• Con­tin­ue mon­i­tor­ing and adjust­ing based on results and com­mu­ni­ty feedback.

Shel­by Coun­ty, Tennessee

Plan

• Expand oppor­tu­ni­ties for youth ages 12–18 in areas with the high­est youth arrest rates.
• Tar­get two ZIP codes with peak arrest times between 5 and 9 p.m.
• Engage area young peo­ple on pro­ba­tion for direct input on the oppor­tu­ni­ties they want.
• Iden­ti­fy and research com­mu­ni­ty-based pro­grams that align with youth inter­ests and needs.

Do

• Con­duct lis­ten­ing ses­sions with youth on probation.
• Research and iden­ti­fy rel­e­vant com­mu­ni­ty-based pro­grams in tar­get­ed areas.
• Pilot incen­tive pro­grams for youth who par­tic­i­pat­ed in after-school pro­grams or met pro­ba­tion-relat­ed goals dur­ing high-risk hours.

Study

• Use sur­veys and focus groups to gath­er feed­back on what moti­vates youth to engage and succeed.
• Lis­ten: Youth expressed they val­ued non-mon­e­tary incen­tives like cer­tifi­cates, recre­ation time, hob­by oppor­tu­ni­ties and lead­er­ship roles.

Act

• Shift focus to under­stand­ing moti­va­tion and tai­lor­ing incen­tive structures.
• Expand devel­op­men­tal­ly appro­pri­ate incentives.
• Incor­po­rate skill build­ing and behav­ioral coaching.
• Reduce puni­tive respons­es and pro­mote pro­por­tion­al, sup­port­ive con­se­quences when expec­ta­tions aren’t met.

Westch­ester Coun­ty, New York

Plan

• Iden­ti­fy the prob­lem (over-reliance on for­mal court respons­es for minor youth offens­es in Westch­ester County).
• Cre­ate a pros­e­cu­tor-led diver­sion mod­el called Com­mu­ni­ty-Based Con­nec­tions (CBC), allow­ing attor­neys to refer eli­gi­ble youth to trust­ed com­mu­ni­ty pro­grams instead of fil­ing cas­es in court.
• Col­lab­o­rate with attor­neys and young peo­ple to co-design and val­i­date the diver­sion process to meet youth needs and increase buy-in.
• Track the num­ber of eli­gi­ble cas­es referred to CBC.
• Mea­sure the suc­cess rate (case clo­sures with­out court appearance).
• Work to reduce juve­nile delin­quen­cy fil­ings coun­ty­wide by 25% by 2026.

Do

• Pilot the diver­sion process in the City of Yonkers.
• Refer five young peo­ple from the Coun­ty Attorney’s Office to CBC programs.

Study

• All five youth com­plet­ed the diver­sion pro­gram, and their cas­es were closed with­out a court appearance.
• Ana­lyze data on over­all refer­rals and suc­cess­ful case completions.

Act

• Based on promis­ing results, expand the mod­el to three addi­tion­al areas in Westch­ester County.
• Con­tin­ue refin­ing the pro­gram using stake­hold­er feedback.
• Advance long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty of diver­sion as an alter­na­tive to juve­nile jus­tice involvement.

ALN Alum­ni Network

This group of lead­ers is part of the ALN Alum­ni Net­work, which now includes five cohorts of ALN grad­u­ates. Across 21 states and Puer­to Rico, 76 alum­ni use peer sup­port and col­lab­o­ra­tive learn­ing to strength­en their lead­er­ship capac­i­ties and apply results-dri­ven frame­works in their home organizations.

“ALN [taught] us how to be lead­ers,” said par­tic­i­pant Kim­brell Owens, inter­agency manager/​JDAI coor­di­na­tor for Mem­phis and Shel­by Coun­ty Juve­nile Court. ​“Now I think about what I need to do to help oth­ers to come along­side me [toward results], not just me being the one that’s mov­ing reforms along.”

Learn more about the 2023–24 Juve­nile Jus­tice Applied Lead­er­ship Network