Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Leadership Forum

CfJJ was a founding member of the Massachusetts Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Leadership Forum, a collective impact group comprised of key government and non-profit sector stakeholders who believed that promoting the positive development of young people and families is the best path to child well-being, healthy communities and public safety. The Forum included high-level participation from nearly every stakeholder in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems in Massachusetts, including both government and non-state actors. 

Led by a core group of child-serving agencies, the Leadership Forum articulated a shared vision for children, youth and families who come into contact with the juvenile justice or child welfare systems in Massachusetts. This vision encompassed: appropriate placement; fairness and effectiveness; a well resourced, mutually accountable, evidence-driven, and data-informed system; and a system that works to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities.

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Strategic Objectives

In order to reach the above-mentioned result, the Leadership Forum undertook four strategic objectives, each of which sought to integrate a positive youth development (PYD) approach more deeply into agency practices and policies.

1.     Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System

2.     Strengthen Child Welfare Supports for Youth to Reduce Delinquent Behaviors and Improve Child Welfare Outcomes

3.     Train Current Staff and Developing Tomorrow’s Workforce

4.     Strengthen Community Based Responses to Youth & Families

The Leadership Forum met quarterly, and the Core Group of government organizations worked on a Results Based Leadership process to define metrics of success for the initiative. A Training Committee, convened jointly with the Massachusetts Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI) helped carry out the training objective.  A professional staff member, hosted at Citizens for Juvenile Justice, helped coordinate the Forum’s work on a day-to-day basis.

Leadership Forum successes included:

  • Increased trust between systems leaders

  • A three-year (2020-2022) Strategic Plan

  • The Positive Youth Outcome and Recidivism Reduction Strategy, completed in 2017. The completion of this interagency document allowed Massachusetts to apply for (and eventually receive) an OJJDP Second Chance Act grant to develop graduated response grids at Probation and DYS and deepen educational advocacy efforts at CPCS. The grant enabled Probation to hire a Juvenile Data Analyst, who conducted painstaking violation of probation (VOP) data analysis for the first time. This in turn showed that probation violations were stemming primarily from the administrative probation caseload, which subsequently led to practice changes for how juvenile probation devotes its human resources.

  • A Data dictionary, which provided a foundation for ongoing data definition and alignment work at JJPAD.

  • The Training Committee’s race equity efforts, which are ongoing. The launch of Race Equity Principles and Core Competencies at a convening of more than 100 people from 21 agencies in November 2018 set the stage for ongoing agency-level and system-level progress in race equity. The work of the LF Training Committee and the Race Equity Principles and Core Competencies are continuing after the grant period through a newly named Race Equity Working Group (co-facilitated by staff from DESE, DYS, EOHHS, DPH, and CfJJ) whose first meeting took place in February 2020.

For more information about the Leadership Forum, contact Josh Dankoff at joshuadankoff@cfjj.org.