Training Opportunity: Family-Engaged Case Planning in Youth Probation

A new train­ing pre­pares teams of juve­nile pro­ba­tion pro­fes­sion­als and their com­mu­ni­ty part­ners to imple­ment the fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning mod­el in youth pro­ba­tion in their localities.

Under the mod­el, pro­ba­tion offi­cers work in part­ner­ship with young peo­ple and their fam­i­lies to craft indi­vid­u­al­ized goals and update and expand upon those goals as suc­cess­es and chal­lenges arise. Through­out the process, they build con­nec­tions with com­mu­ni­ty-based sup­port and ser­vices. This approach and the larg­er vision for trans­form­ing juve­nile pro­ba­tion aligns with what research shows about youth devel­op­ment and what works to fos­ter long-term behav­ior change and safety.

“Pro­ba­tion depart­ments across the coun­try are increas­ing­ly acknowl­edg­ing the need to part­ner with youth and fam­i­lies more authen­ti­cal­ly,” said Steve Bish­op, Casey’s asso­ciate direc­tor for pro­ba­tion and sys­tem trans­for­ma­tion. ​“Imple­ment­ing the fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning mod­el is a direct and pow­er­ful way to turn talk into action.”

Pro­ba­tion depart­ments that are inter­est­ed in this oppor­tu­ni­ty and believe they can meet the cri­te­ria below are encour­aged to com­plete an inter­est form by June 28. A pre­view of ques­tions on the inter­est form are available.

Express inter­est in this train­ing opportunity

About the Training

The course con­sists of five mod­ules — three vir­tu­al and two in-per­son ses­sions. Mod­ules will run over 10 weeks, start­ing in Octo­ber 2024. A diverse group of prac­ti­tion­ers, fam­i­ly mem­bers and young peo­ple con­tributed to the curriculum.

The course cur­ricu­lum dives deep into the par­tic­u­lars of the fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning mod­el, includ­ing:

• iden­ti­fy­ing a young person’s cir­cle of care;
• ele­vat­ing a young person’s strengths and aspirations;
• con­nect­ing with com­mu­ni­ty-based sup­port and services;
• ensur­ing that goals are spe­cif­ic, mea­sur­able, action­able, rel­e­vant and time limited;
• cel­e­brat­ing suc­cess; and
• prob­lem solv­ing and pivoting.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing juris­dic­tions receive:

• approx­i­mate­ly 16 hours of free fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning train­ing, deliv­ered by Harley Con­sult­ing Group and a team of train­ers and fund­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation;
• tools and resources;
• free fol­low-up coach­ing and sup­port (a min­i­mum of eight hours from a tech­ni­cal assis­tance provider over one year); and
• access to a net­work of juris­dic­tions also work­ing on trans­form­ing their local juve­nile jus­tice systems.

Those seek­ing train­ing on pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion more broad­ly or as a basis for fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning should con­sid­er Casey’s online pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion train­ing series.

Time­line

Esti­mat­ed Time­line (sub­ject to change)

• June 28 — dead­line for sub­mis­sion of inter­est form
• July 19 — juris­dic­tions learn if they have been selected
• July (TBD) — pre-launch vir­tu­al session
• Ear­ly Octo­ber (TBD) — mod­ule 1 (vir­tu­al)
• Octo­ber 17–18 [ten­ta­tive] — mod­ules 2 and 3 (in-per­son ses­sions in Baltimore)
• Novem­ber (TBD) — mod­ules 4 and 5 (vir­tu­al)
• Decem­ber (TBD) — post-course plan­ning ses­sion (vir­tu­al, one for each site)

Eli­gi­bil­i­ty Cri­te­ria and Expec­ta­tions for Par­tic­i­pat­ing Teams

This train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty is open to juris­dic­tions that are cur­rent­ly involved in JDAI^® or pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion site work or that par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 2023 nation­al con­ven­ing in Hous­ton. Prospec­tive appli­cants who are unsure may con­tact Harley Con­sult­ing Group’s Annie Sal­sich to con­firm that their juris­dic­tion is eligible.

The juris­dic­tion must be able to estab­lish a team with the fol­low­ing composition.

• Six to sev­en indi­vid­u­als, including:
• one pro­ba­tion admin­is­tra­tor with the author­i­ty to make pol­i­cy and prac­tice changes;
• three pro­ba­tion prac­ti­tion­ers (two pro­ba­tion offi­cers and a super­vi­sor or vice ver­sa); and
• two or three com­mu­ni­ty part­ners (ide­al­ly one or two young peo­ple with pri­or expe­ri­ence on pro­ba­tion and/​or fam­i­ly mem­bers of young peo­ple with pri­or expe­ri­ence on pro­ba­tion, and one com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tion or leader who works direct­ly with and on behalf of young peo­ple on probation).
• The team mem­bers should:
• reflect racial, eth­nic and gen­der diversity;
• pos­sess a strong ori­en­ta­tion to equi­ty and well-being for young peo­ple and fam­i­lies who face the steep­est bar­ri­ers to success;
• have a will­ing­ness to build part­ner­ships with young peo­ple, fam­i­ly mem­bers and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers; and
• be action-ori­ent­ed, bold and able to use influ­ence and lead­er­ship to make changes in their system.
• Team mem­bers must be able to com­plete Casey’s online pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion train­ing series before the launch of the fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning train­ing in Octo­ber. (Esti­mat­ed time required is 10 hours per indi­vid­ual between July and September.)
• Team mem­bers attend, active­ly par­tic­i­pate in and com­plete all required assign­ments for the fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning train­ing course. Between Octo­ber and Decem­ber, approx­i­mate­ly three to six hours of live train­ing and prep work per mod­ule over five mod­ules, for a total of approx­i­mate­ly 24 hours. This does not include one-time trav­el time to and from Baltimore.
• The juris­dic­tion (team mem­bers and agency lead­er­ship) intends to imple­ment fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning fol­low­ing the train­ing. Giv­en that each juris­dic­tion will need to plan and tai­lor what works best for them, it is not expect­ed that sites take on the full fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning mod­el imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing the train­ing. How­ev­er, it is expect­ed that juris­dic­tions cre­ate — with coach­ing and sup­port from nation­al train­ers — a plan for their local fam­i­ly case plan­ning trans­for­ma­tion and the steps and time­line need­ed to get there.
• The jurisdiction’s des­ig­nat­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives par­tic­i­pate in post-train­ing cross-site update calls.
• The juris­dic­tion cov­ers trav­el and lodg­ing costs for all team mem­bers for the Octo­ber 17–18 Bal­ti­more-based mod­ules. Casey will help with trav­el costs for com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers on an as-need­ed basis.
• The juris­dic­tion pro­vides stipends or oth­er ways to hon­or the time and exper­tise of com­mu­ni­ty part­ners on the team.

“Part­ner­ing with fam­i­lies is not just the right thing to do, it is the more effec­tive way of strength­en­ing our abil­i­ty to stand togeth­er in sup­port of our youth,” said Jean­nette Bocane­gra-Simon, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Jus­tice for Fam­i­lies and a mem­ber of the train­ing cur­ricu­lum design team. ​“Strong fam­i­lies, stronger safer com­mu­ni­ties, I like to say.”

Express inter­est in this train­ing opportunity

See a pre­view of the appli­ca­tion questions

Resources on Fam­i­ly-Engaged Case Planning

Guide: Fam­i­ly-Engaged Case Plan­ning for Youth on Probation

Frame­work and tool help juve­nile jus­tice agen­cies treat fam­i­lies as partner

Webi­nar on fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning in youth probation