County

The Forum believes that meaningful youth engagement is critical for the creation of sustainable, widespread, high-impact change in the systems and settings that can either support or hinder young people’s progress.

Once communities have determined their desired outcomes, this website offers information regarding federal agencies or nationally recognized organizations that use different levels of criteria for identifying effective programs. This website may assist in identifying effective programs that may best match your needs.

http://www.ocfs.state.ny.us/main/sppd/eff_practices/links.asp

GTO consists of 10 steps that empower program developers to do the following:

As in many other states, New York’s juvenile justice system is run by several agencies that each collect and report their own data. Until recently, this data had never been compiled or distributed to offer a comprehensive understanding of the system. This project sought to empower state agencies to report data back to counties in a systematic way that could improve local planning. The Vera Project staff are currently working with county officials from across New York to help them use these and future reports to shape juvenile justice policies and practices.

The worksheet was developed based on work with the Southeast Challenge Cities, as they identified the need to align their data amongst their stakeholders. The example is provided to aid leaders in completing their own community data assessment.

Government agencies, intergovernmental commissions, task forces, and policy and advocacy organizations have always relied on some level of data on investments in children, youth, families and communities to do their jobs. Fiscal maps can help decision makers get a birds-eye view of how much is being spent across departments and programs. Though these maps come in many forms, a quality fiscal map is different than traditional public reports on spending because it focuses on children and youth, not departments and agencies.

Program landscape mapping, comprised of data gathered through a survey or online database, can help your community get a picture of services, supports and opportunities that are available to children and youth in your community.

The paper presents a new approach to evidence-based practice that will produce better outcomes for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. The paper begins with an overview of the different approaches to evidence-based practice and introduces a tool Dr. Mark Lipsey has developed to better make use of the vast knowledge base. It then embeds this new approach within a comprehensive juvenile justice framework that will allow increased knowledge to benefit the entire juvenile justice continuum, rather than a handful programs serving a limited number of youth.

This worksheet can be used by leaders in a variety of ways. For example, it can be used to prompt discussion during a community meeting or it can be used as a survey among providers and policymakers. The goal is to help leaders gain more information about where there is available data on child and youth outcomes; family, school and community supports; and leadership efforts.