Team Eligibility and Selection Criteria

The Juve­nile Jus­tice Applied Lead­er­ship Net­work is for teams from juris­dic­tions seek­ing to advance the well-being of youth involved with or at risk of involve­ment with the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem. ALN is seek­ing juris­dic­tions that are — or are inter­est­ed in — pro­mot­ing com­mu­ni­ty-based approach­es and pro­grams that divert young peo­ple before they are ever referred to the legal sys­tem and pre­vent young peo­ple from encoun­ter­ing police in the first place. Prospec­tive juris­dic­tions should be inter­est­ed in chang­ing the poli­cies, prac­tices and orga­ni­za­tion­al cul­ture of their juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem to sig­nif­i­cant­ly shrink the foot­print of the sys­tem; reduce all forms of con­fine­ment; pro­mote heal­ing and reha­bil­i­ta­tion for youth with the most seri­ous offense his­to­ries; and strength­en their part­ner­ships with com­mu­ni­ty groups.

Class 5 is open to all juris­dic­tions, regard­less of their con­nec­tion to Casey’s Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive^® (JDAI) or pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion site work.

A team should have between four and six mem­bers who rep­re­sent the con­tin­u­um of sup­port from pre­ven­tion to reen­try after con­fine­ment for youth and young adults involved with or at risk of involve­ment with the jus­tice system.

Prospec­tive teams must include at least one mem­ber from the juve­nile jus­tice or pro­ba­tion agency and should con­sid­er includ­ing mem­bers from relat­ed pub­lic sys­tems and com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions, such as the fol­low­ing types of stakeholders:

• grass­roots or com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions serv­ing young peo­ple or com­mu­ni­ty interests;
• advo­cates for social jus­tice and racial jus­tice, includ­ing faith-based groups;
• youth-serv­ing sys­tems, such as edu­ca­tion, child wel­fare, work­force devel­op­ment or employ­ment; and
• young lead­ers active in their com­mu­ni­ties, espe­cial­ly in com­mu­ni­ties most affect­ed by the legal sys­tem, or peo­ple with direct expe­ri­ence in the youth jus­tice system.

In com­pos­ing the team, con­sid­er two or more mem­bers who have pre­vi­ous­ly worked well togeth­er to advance pos­i­tive change. The team com­po­si­tion should reflect the fol­low­ing characteristics:

• Racial, eth­nic and gen­der diversity
• Diver­si­ty of voic­es and points of view
• Reform-mind­ed orientation
• Strong ori­en­ta­tion to equi­ty and well-being for young peo­ple and fam­i­lies who face the steep­est bar­ri­ers to success
• Prac­tice and expe­ri­ence using data to inform decision-making
• Will­ing­ness to build part­ner­ships between com­mu­ni­ty (e.g., fam­i­ly, youth, com­mu­ni­ty) and pub­lic systems
• Action-ori­ent­ed, bold and able to use influ­ence and lead­er­ship to make a mea­sur­able difference

Team mem­bers should have the autho­riza­tion, time and com­mit­ment to ful­ly par­tic­i­pate in the pro­gram and have a role and the author­i­ty (for­mal or infor­mal) to make changes and deci­sions in their sys­tem or com­mu­ni­ty and move the work back home.

Up to five juris­dic­tions, for a max­i­mum of 20 total par­tic­i­pants, will be selected.