Work highlights
Examples of Models for Change-supported activities underway in Pennsylvania
State target areas
- Vision from the top down.
In January 2005, five key state agencies signed off on Pennsylvania'a Joint Policy Statement on Aftercare. The Joint Policy Statement on Aftercare describes an ideal system of aftercare including 17 aspirational goals—covering early assessment and planning, multi-agency collaboration, documentation and records transfer, visitation and monitoring, judicial oversight hearings, school reintegration, and a variety of other issues—to be achieved by the year 2010. A Models for Change-supported county-by-county assessment followed, comparing practice on the ground with the vision of the Joint Policy Statement. The assessment process not only uncovered a range of innovative aftercare approaches and yielded reform recommendations to address common weaknesses, it constituted a first step in recruiting local jurisdictions into a statewide movement to revamp aftercare policy and practice. Now more than two-thirds of all Pennsylvania counties are committed to the goals and principles of the Joint Policy Statement and have begun efforts to implement them locally. Results of the initial survey were documented in the Pa Progress, Aftercare: Reality and Reform.
- Model development from the ground up.
Initially, five counties—Allegheny, Cambria, Lycoming, Philadelphia, and York—were chosen to pilot nuts-and-bolts aftercare innovations at home—new ways to coordinate educational transitions for youth in placement, to connect them with jobs, to supervise them after release—and also to meet on a regular basis to share what they were learning and use it to build a working aftercare practice model that others in Pennsylvania could adapt. Over time they helped develop Probation Case Management Essentials for Youth in Placement, a document laying out specifications for a probation-driven model of ongoing assessment, planning, and review with which to guide placement and reentry decision making.
- Dissemination of knowledge, training and tools.
To help probation officers be better advocates for their clients and get around barriers to the prompt educational reintegration of youth released from placement facilities, Models for Change commissioned the Pennsylvania-based Education Law Center to produce an Educational Aftercare & Reintegration Toolkit and provide training in educational advocacy to probation departments all over the state. The Northeast Juvenile Defender Center was tapped to train juvenile defenders on better ways to represent their clients’ interests and ensure that their needs are met in disposition and aftercare planning.
- Policy changes.
Basic state probation standards on visitation and monitoring of youth in placement, state educational policy governing such matters as school assignment practices and credit awards for educational progress made by youth returning from commitment facilities, and guidelines from the state’s Department of Public Welfare regarding funding of good reintegration practices have all been or are being rewritten as a result of Models for Change.
- Establishing an inter-county collaboration to improve educational and career and technical training opportunities in residential facilities and to improve the reintegration of youth returning home.The Pennsylvania Academic and Career/Technical Training (PACTT) Alliance, is an innovative inter-county collaboration sponsored by the Pennsylvania Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers. Capitalizing on the combined influence of Allegheny and Philadelphia Counties, the PACTT Alliance strives to improve the academic and career and technical training that delinquent youth receive while in residential placement, and in their home communities upon return. The project’s initial focus is on the residential facilities and transition programs in Allegheny and Philadelphia Counties, but then it will expand into other counties in the Commonwealth. In addition, the project will address and work to adapt juvenile-serving agencies’ policies and procedures that can hinder delinquent youth’s transitions back into school and the community.
- Policy commitment.
High-level representatives of the state’s juvenile justice, mental health, child welfare, drug and alcohol, and education systems were convened to produce a Mental Health/Juvenile Justice (MH/JJ) Joint Policy Statement formally committing the state to the goal of having the following in place by 2010: a collaborative process, routine screening and assessment of youth for behavioral health problems, an appropriate continuum of programs and services for diverting and treating them, opportunities for family involvement in their treatment, appropriate protections for their privacy and other legal interests, and sustainable funding mechanisms that support all of these practices.
- Multi-system collaboration.
With Models for Change support, local coordination initiatives in Allegheny, Chester and Erie Counties are working to implement the Comprehensive Systems Change Initiative (CSCI). CSCI goals are aimed at developing multi-system collaborative structures at every stage of juvenile justice processing, utilizing standardized screening and assessment tools to identify youth with behavioral health issues, diverting appropriate youth from the juvenile justice system to mental health services when possible, and building a continuum of evidence-based treatment services in the community that complements and coordinates with juvenile justice services. A Models for Change mental health coordinator within each county is dedicated to coordinating, managing and implementing the initiatives as determined by the county’s collaborative team.
- Screening and assessment.
Following a statewide survey of county screening and assessment practices for delinquent youth and several related training events, a pilot behavioral health screening and assessment process for county juvenile probation departments was developed and launched, centered around the used of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument, Version 2 (MAYSI-2). As of December 2008, more than a third of Pennsylvania counties are participating with most using the MAYSI-2 to screen youth for possible behavioral health problems at intake. The experiences of the participating counties are being documented, and local and statewide data reports on MAYSI-2 results and implications will be disseminated. Additionally, the three model MH/JJ counties have identified standardized screening and/or assessment tools, driven by local needs being used at varying points of JJ contact.
- Evidence-based programs.
Driven by goals identified by the MH/JJ Workgroup, Pennsylvania has created a “Resource Center for Evidence-Based Prevention and Intervention Programs and Practices. This is a multi-agency effort to support the development and enhancement of evidence-based and promising programs. At the same time, the model counties have increasingly developed a number of evidence-based programs, largely utilizing the Medical Assistance fee schedule. These include Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST), Functional Family Therapy (FFT) and Multi-dimensional Treatment Foster Care.
- Diversion into services.
Following a statewide survey that documented policies and practices at the county level, the diversion sub-committee of the MH/JJ State Work Group has written a model pre-adjudication diversion policy and is seeking sign-off by various stakeholder groups. The next step will be to ask state agencies to adopt the recommended policy and for counties to use the model to create written diversion policies within their localities. Additionally, there are several county pilot projects that seek to implement pre-adjudication diversion processes and programs at three key decision points: law enforcement, school based referrals, and intake probation.
- Family involvement.
Chester County has hired two parent advocates to participate in system planning and implementation and to help families with children involved in multiple child-serving systems to navigate the different systems and learn how to advocate for themselves and their children. The county has also developed a multidisciplinary team to implement Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) conferences, hired a dedicated FGDM coordinator, and trained county and service provider staff as FGDM conference facilitators. With Models for Change support, innovative best practices like these are being assembled from around the state and documented in a monograph intended to encourage creativity and improve the overall level and quality of family involvement in supervision and treatment planning for children in Pennsylvania’s behavioral health and juvenile justice systems.
- Confidentiality and protection against self-incrimination.
Working with more than twenty key state organizations and agencies, Models for Change supported efforts to amend Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Act to ensure that youth are protected against self-incrimination when providing information during screening, assessment, and evaluation. On October 9, 2008, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell signed into law Act 109, which guarantees that information volunteered by Pennsylvania youth in court-ordered mental health screening or assessment will not be used against them in delinquency or criminal proceedings.
- Enhancing Spanish-language capability and cultural competence.
In Berks County, court notices and forms have been translated, in-court interpreters hired, cultural training provided, and instructional software and routine testing used to improve the Spanish-language proficiency of juvenile probation staff.
- Reducing minority detentions through screening and alternatives.
To reduce high detention rates that affected minorities disproportionately, Berks County instituted a Detention Assessment Instrument, a more structured and objective approach to detention decision making. In addition, the County established a new evening reporting center (ERC) in a neighborhood where many youth involved in the juvenile justice system live. The ERC provides an alternative to detention for youth awaiting court hearings who need additional supervision but do not pose a danger to public safety that warrants incarceration. It also serves youth who would otherwise have been detained for probation violations and similar infractions.
- Recruiting nontraditional service providers.
Berks County has also surveyed churches and other nontraditional providers that offer community service, mentoring and other opportunities, mapped responses against law enforcement and court data showing where court-involved youth live, and used the results to begin expanding and filling gaps in the array of services available to minority youth.
- Developing workforce opportunities.
With Models for Change help, Berks County brought together community stakeholders to support an application to the U.S. Department of Labor to fund a Youth Build program and expand the array of opportunities for youth to learn building trades. The program will acquire old homes in need of repair and rehabilitation in minority communities in the Reading area, giving neighborhood youth the chance to pick up transferable employment and job-readiness skills by working to restore them.
Additional state work
Juvenile Indigent Defense
- Assessments and defender trainings.
Statewide assessments of the juvenile indigent defense systems in Pennsylvania have been conducted. Building on the momentum created by the assessments, Models for Change is now working to devise strategic opportunities for technical assistance and training in order to improve the quality of legal representation for youth in the justice system. Defender trainings have already been conducted in various sites in Pennsylvania and through the Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network, plans are underway to create a statewide juvenile defender back-up center.
Evidence-based practices
Cross-state action networks
Teams from Pennsylvania participate in the following Models for Change action networks:
Research Initiative
As part of the Models for Change Research Initiative, Pennsylvania sites are involved in the following studies: