Council for Youth Engagement to Address the Juvenile Justice System Consulting

This project is initiated by the Agency of Human Services (AHS), Department for Children and Families (DCF), Family Services Division (FSD), in collaboration with the Council for Equitable Youth Justice (CEYJ). The project's aim is to gather and examine data from youth affected by the system through trauma-informed and ethical youth engagement, and to propose recommendations for systemic change. The questions to be answered include: 1) what specifically youth need from the system; 2) how the system could be more helpful/or improved; 3) what has been harmful in their experience in the system; and 4) what youth believe would've prevented their system involvement in the first place. The project targets populations who are most impacted and how their identity has affected their experience in the system. Having a focus to gather the data and youth voice will inform the state and the Council how to achieve the goals of the CEYJ Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Three-Year Plan, where to spend Title II grant funds the state receives, and where the overall focus goes for system and practice improvement. One of the goals of the 2024-2027 CEYJ Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Three-Year Plan for Youth Services (Youth Engagement) is to “create a structure for youth who are justice system-involved to provide the Council and other youth justice decision-making entities with youth perspective”. The strategies are: a. The Council will determine whether this objective should be accomplished by a youth committee, youth focus group, or other youth centric processes. b. Create a process for youth to give feedback to the Council, DCF and relevant decision-making bodies about policy and practice changes that impact youth. The System Improvement and Ethnic and Racial Disparities committees will also gain knowledge about youth perspective in addressing their goals. The program is contingent on grant awards through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), for program area, delinquency prevention. OJJDP describes this program area as follows: as a comprehensive juvenile justice and delinquency prevention programs that meet needs of youth through collaboration of the man local systems before which a youth may appear (e.g., child protection, mental health, courts, schools, welfare services, etc.) A. Service Description 1. Contractor shall use trauma informed and ethical youth engagement to collect data from system impacted youth. 2. Contractor shall find out from system impacted youth: a) what specifically they need from the system; b) how the system could be more helpful/or improve; c) what has been harmful in their experience involved in the system; and d) what youth believe would've prevented their system involvement in the first place. 3. Contractor shall provide state tools (e.g., questions) and recommendations to sustain the effort to continually engage youth voice/gather youth input, once the project has ended 4. Contractor shall recommend growth points for the youth system and practice changes. B. Specifications 1. Contractor shall develop and implement a fair and equitable process to recruit and collect information from system impacted youth in all twelve AHS district areas serving Vermont’s fourteen counties. a. System impacted youth include juvenile or criminal court system; foster care; 14 – 26 years of age; youth suspended from school; youth of color: new American youth; LGBTQIA+ youth; youth with disabilities/neurodivergence; and youth who failed diversion. b. The youth recruited should have exited the system to provide a reflective perspective. 2. Contractor shall compensate youth for participation in interviews, surveys, focus groups, and other methods to sustain their engagement year by year. Contractor shall conduct interviews and focus groups both in person and online. State shall reimburse contractor for actual compensation costs. 3. Contractor shall use a varied approach for gathering information, to collect youth voice. 4. Contractor shall involve youth in crafting questions and compensate youth for their participation both as project developers and as participants. 5. Contractor shall build and/or enhance the youth engagement structure within the Council to facilitate active participation, effective communication, and decision making between youth and adult council members. This includes to build and implement a process to ensure per diem payments to council members can happen in a timely fashion. 6. Contractor shall implement the timeline and key deliverables of the plan to develop, implement, and report recommendations to improve the juvenile system, policies, and practices. 7. Contractor shall submit two reports (mid project and final report) that analyze the data, outcomes, and the recommendations to address system and practice change. The report will include how the state can continue to collect information from system involved youth in order to monitor progress and address new challenges. 8. Contractor shall submit accurate and timely quarterly written summaries of work performed detailing project progression during the quarter to the DCF Program Manager and Agreement Specialist. This report is due 20 days after the end of the quarter. 9. Contractor shall present findings and updates to the CEYJ at 18 months and 36 months. 10. Submit Annual report to the program manager for each federal fiscal year Oct 1 – Sept 30 during the project period. This report is due 20 days after the federal fiscal year (Oct 20)