FAQ: 2022 Training-for-Trainers Institute for Reimagining Juvenile Justice

• What is Reimag­in­ing Juve­nile Justice?
• How has RJJ grown to train over 800 adults in youth-serv­ing roles?
• What does the RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers Insti­tute look like in 2022?
• Who can apply for the RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers Institute?
• What cri­te­ria will be used to assess a site’s readi­ness for this opportunity?
• Who should a site select as a train­er to par­tic­i­pate in the RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers Institute?
• What is the RJJ cur­ricu­lum and how is it delivered?
• How do we apply to par­tic­i­pate in the RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers Insti­tute for 2022? 
• What is the cost to par­tic­i­pate in the RJJ insti­tute if our appli­ca­tion is selected?
• How can I learn more about RJJ before appli­ca­tions are due?
• Key dates for RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers in 2022 
• What should I do if I have more questions?

What Is Reimag­in­ing Juve­nile Justice?

Reimag­in­ing Juve­nile Jus­tice (RJJ) is a pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment ini­tia­tive spon­sored by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion and deliv­ered through School & Main Insti­tute (SMI), a nation­al­ly rec­og­nized non­prof­it train­ing orga­ni­za­tion locat­ed in Boston, Mass­a­chu­setts. RJJ advances many of the core ele­ments of pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment approach­es that iden­ti­fy the pos­i­tive aspects of a young person’s life and build on those strengths and interests.

The train­ing is designed for pro­fes­sion­als work­ing with youth involved in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem and their fam­i­lies. It aims to devel­op the capac­i­ty of pro­fes­sion­als to sup­port, divert and redi­rect youth to appro­pri­ate and fair jus­tice options, includ­ing those requir­ing a high degree of cross-sys­tem col­lab­o­ra­tion and coor­di­na­tion. The train­ing is based on research on ado­les­cent devel­op­ment that shows youth thrive in a pos­i­tive envi­ron­ment with the sup­port of car­ing adults. RJJ’s pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment frame­work encour­ages juve­nile jus­tice pro­fes­sion­als to focus on young people’s strengths, rather than mere­ly focus on needs and problems.

Train­ing in RJJ is found­ed on a core cur­ricu­lum of six course mod­ules ini­tial­ly designed by SMI in 2016 with the input and assis­tance of spe­cial­ists and pro­fes­sion­als in the field of youth work, child wel­fare and juve­nile jus­tice. The mod­ules are con­tin­u­ous­ly updat­ed with cur­rent infor­ma­tion from the field.

How has RJJ grown to train over 800 adults in youth-serv­ing roles?

The RJJ approach has devel­oped over the fol­low­ing stages, begin­ning in 2016.

• Pilot: In 2016–17, the RJJ cur­ricu­lum was pilot­ed by SMI in Mass­a­chu­setts with 21 pro­fes­sion­als rep­re­sent­ing a vari­ety of agen­cies and diverse roles serv­ing youth and fam­i­lies involved in the juve­nile jus­tice system.
• 2.0: In 2018, the Pima Coun­ty JDAI^® site, locat­ed in Tuc­son, Ari­zona, was select­ed to repli­cate an updat­ed ver­sion of RJJ in their juris­dic­tion. Twen­ty-eight par­tic­i­pants — rep­re­sent­ing a range of pro­fes­sions from pro­ba­tion, deten­tion, pub­lic edu­ca­tion, local law enforce­ment, pub­lic defend­er, coun­ty attor­ney and com­mu­ni­ty-based ser­vices, and includ­ing par­ents and youth — com­plet­ed the training.
• 3.0: In 2019, to expand the initiative’s nation­al foot­print, the Casey Foun­da­tion launched RJJ 3.0 with a Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute. From a nation­wide com­pet­i­tive appli­ca­tion process, 15 sites were select­ed: eight states, four of which part­nered with coun­ty enti­ties, and sev­en local juris­dic­tions. The first RJJ 3.0 Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute was held in May 2019 and pro­vid­ed a unique, hands-on train­ing expe­ri­ence for 34 train­ers who par­tic­i­pat­ed as teams from each select­ed juris­dic­tion. The insti­tute was designed to equip train­ers with the con­cepts, cur­ricu­lum and instruc­tion­al approach nec­es­sary to bring RJJ back to their home juris­dic­tion. As a result, the train­ers deliv­ered the RJJ cur­ricu­lum to over 450 addi­tion­al youth jus­tice pro­fes­sion­als between July 2019 and Jan­u­ary 2020 and con­tin­ue to deliv­er the RJJ cur­ricu­lum through both vir­tu­al and in-per­son sessions.
• 4.0: In 2020, the RJJ 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute was held vir­tu­al­ly. Through a com­pet­i­tive process, 16 juris­dic­tions from around the coun­try were select­ed. They col­lec­tive­ly enrolled 60 par­tic­i­pants, and this new cadre of train­ers went on to train over 300 local participants.
• 5.0: In 2022, teams from up to 12 juris­dic­tions will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in the lat­est Train­ing-for-Train­ers Insti­tute (see below).

What does the RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers (T4T) Insti­tute look like in 2022?

In 2022, the RJJ Train­ing-for-Train­er Insti­tute will be deliv­ered in two phas­es to teams from up to 12 jurisdictions.

• Phase 1 is for three to five train­ers per juris­dic­tion. It will run from Aug. 30, 2022, through Oct. 11, 2022 and include a 60-minute ​“Intro to RJJ” ori­en­ta­tion and six 90-minute facil­i­tat­ed vir­tu­al ses­sions at week­ly inter­vals. On their own time before each vir­tu­al ses­sion, the train­ers will view RJJ cur­ricu­lum mod­ules in an e‑learning for­mat. The vir­tu­al ses­sions will be used for peer-to-peer learn­ing, with facil­i­tat­ed dis­cus­sion of the learn­ing objec­tives of the mod­ules, key con­cepts and appli­ca­tion to youth jus­tice work.
• Phase 2 is for two train­ers per juris­dic­tion (each juris­dic­tion will select two from among its atten­dees of Phase I). The two train­ers will attend an in-per­son 2½-day Train­ing-for-Train­ers (T4T) Insti­tute in Den­ver Oct. 18–20, 2022. At the Insti­tute, train­ers will study the course mod­ules and adult teach­ing and learn­ing prin­ci­ples; hear from cur­rent RJJ train­ers about their own expe­ri­ences with imple­men­ta­tion and results; and devel­op local RJJ roll-out plans for local deliv­ery. Fol­low­ing the RJJ T4T Insti­tute, the jurisdiction’s team of train­ers will be paired with a nation­al coach to help sup­port local imple­men­ta­tion strategies.

Who can apply for the RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers Institute?

Pub­lic sys­tems or gov­ern­ment agen­cies that work with youth in the jus­tice sys­tem may apply as a sin­gle enti­ty, in part­ner­ship with anoth­er agency or in part­ner­ship with a local non-sys­tem part­ner. Pref­er­ence will be giv­en to appli­ca­tions that are sub­mit­ted joint­ly by a pub­lic sys­tem and a local non-sys­tem partner.

• Exam­ples of pub­lic sys­tems are juve­nile court, pro­ba­tion, law enforce­ment and local edu­ca­tion agencies.
• Exam­ples of local part­ners are non­prof­it com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions pro­vid­ing diver­sion, alter­na­tives to con­fine­ment and/​or sup­port for youth involved in the juve­nile jus­tice system.

What cri­te­ria will be used to assess a site’s readi­ness for this opportunity?

Lead­er­ship Com­mit­ment: Trans­for­ma­tive work takes time. Reimag­in­ing juve­nile jus­tice requires ded­i­cat­ed lead­ers who pro­mote and sup­port sys­tems change and are com­mit­ted to fos­ter­ing a pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment mind­set across sys­tems that serve youth with­in their com­mu­ni­ty and/​or jurisdiction.

• Appli­cants must iden­ti­fy a lead­er­ship group or net­work of sys­tem and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners with the author­i­ty and influ­ence to address poli­cies and prac­tices with­in their respec­tive agen­cies and pro­grams. This group should include some­one in a lead­er­ship role from at least one juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem and/​or agency (prefer­ably juve­nile court, juve­nile pro­ba­tion or local law enforce­ment). Appli­cants’ lead­er­ship groups or net­works must engage and col­lab­o­rate with a vari­ety of youth-serv­ing agen­cies and pro­fes­sion­als, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to pro­ba­tion, youth deten­tion, child wel­fare, pub­lic edu­ca­tion, com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions, par­ents and fam­i­ly, local law enforce­ment, courts, pub­lic defend­ers, youth and faith-based organizations.
• Part­ners with­in the lead­er­ship group com­mit to pro­mot­ing RJJ with­in their sys­tems and/​or agen­cies, includ­ing allo­cat­ing time for par­tic­i­pat­ing staff to attend train­ing and deliv­er the train­ing locally.
• Part­ners with­in the lead­er­ship group agree to con­sid­er pol­i­cy and prac­tice rec­om­men­da­tions offered by their par­tic­i­pants in RJJ. This includes a com­mit­ment to par­tic­i­pate in the final RJJ mod­ule, Trans­form­ing Pol­i­cy and Prac­tice, to hear rec­om­men­da­tions that emerge from the par­tic­i­pant cohort.
• The appli­ca­tion will des­ig­nate a leader as a cen­tral point of con­tact. That leader will encour­age full par­tic­i­pa­tion in the RJJ ini­tia­tive and main­tain com­mu­ni­ca­tion with SMI.

Train­ing Invest­ment: Appli­cants should demon­strate com­mit­ment to invest­ing in the over­all RJJ pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment process and meet the fol­low­ing requirements:

• Appli­cants cre­ate a process to iden­ti­fy their team of three to five expe­ri­enced juve­nile jus­tice pro­fes­sion­als who are skilled in adult learn­ing method­olo­gies, embrace the prin­ci­ples of RJJ, can ful­ly com­mit to the RJJ train­ing cal­en­dar (see below) and are able to deliv­er the cur­ricu­lum between Novem­ber 2022 and April 2023.
• Lead­er­ship part­ners (includ­ing agency and pro­gram super­vi­sors) com­mit the nec­es­sary time for train­ers to do the following:
• All mem­bers of the team attend the Phase 1 vir­tu­al train­ing ses­sions: a 60-minute ​“Intro to RJJ” Ori­en­ta­tion and six 90-minute facil­i­tat­ed vir­tu­al ses­sions held week­ly August 30, 2022, through Octo­ber 11, 2022;
• Two mem­bers of the team attend the Phase 2 Train­ing-for-Train­ers (T4T) Insti­tute, a 2½ day in-per­son ses­sion held in Den­ver from Octo­ber 18–20, 2022;
• All mem­bers of the team par­tic­i­pate in one-hour vir­tu­al coach­ing ses­sions, held month­ly from Nov. 2022 to Apr. 2023;
• All mem­bers of the team plan, sched­ule and pre­pare for the local deliv­ery of the RJJ cur­ricu­lum with the oth­er mem­bers of their team and in col­lab­o­ra­tion with local lead­er­ship; and,
• All mem­bers of the team deliv­er the RJJ course mod­ules between Nov. 2022 and Apr. 2023. Depend­ing on local cir­cum­stances, the train­ing could be deliv­ered vir­tu­al­ly vir­tu­al, in-per­son or through a hybrid of vir­tu­al and in-per­son instruc­tion. For plan­ning pur­pos­es, antic­i­pate six hours of class­room time per mod­ule, for a total of 36 class­room hours. The RJJ e‑learning mod­ules will also be inte­grat­ed into the T4T and will be made avail­able for local training.
• Appli­cants must include an out­reach and engage­ment strat­e­gy to enroll 25 to 30 par­tic­i­pants for their local or state RJJ train­ing cohort.
• Con­sid­er includ­ing par­tic­i­pants with the fol­low­ing affil­i­a­tions: gov­ern­ment, pub­lic and non­prof­it agen­cies, com­mu­ni­ty and faith-based orga­ni­za­tions, youth and fam­i­ly pro­grams, courts, pub­lic edu­ca­tion, local law enforce­ment, par­ents and fam­i­ly mem­bers and youth with jus­tice sys­tem involvement.

Who should a site select as a train­er to par­tic­i­pate in the RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers Institute?

A five-per­son train­ing team is opti­mal and should be com­posed of indi­vid­u­als who:

• rep­re­sent a mix of cul­tur­al, eth­nic and racial back­grounds that reflect the community;
• have demon­strat­ed their effec­tive­ness in deliv­er­ing some form of pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment and are able to cre­ate dynam­ic, inter­ac­tive learn­ing expe­ri­ences for adult learners;
• can con­nect with oth­ers, trans­fer knowl­edge on youth devel­op­ment with author­i­ty, apply prin­ci­ples pro­mot­ed in the RJJ cur­ricu­lum and under­stand their trainees’ per­spec­tives; and
• can com­mit time to the full com­ple­ment of SMI’s vir­tu­al train­ing ses­sions, T4T Insti­tute, coach­ing, review of mate­ri­als and resources and plan­ning for and deliv­er­ing the RJJ cur­ricu­lum local­ly between Novem­ber 2022 and April 2023.

What is the RJJ cur­ricu­lum and how is it delivered?

The Course Modules

1. Pos­i­tive Youth Devel­op­ment Fundamentals
   Learn the basic core con­cepts of pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment and their appli­ca­tion in the juve­nile jus­tice are­na. Under­stand the fun­da­men­tal con­nec­tions between ado­les­cent brain devel­op­ment and pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment. Rec­og­nize what is need­ed for a youth’s healthy growth and explore new ideas and strate­gies for how to inte­grate pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment prin­ci­ples into practice.
2. Uti­liz­ing a Cross-Sys­tems Approach
   Under­stand the nature of col­lab­o­ra­tion and the basic steps and stages of build­ing cross-sec­tor rela­tion­ships. Learn ways to iden­ti­fy, access, nav­i­gate and lever­age the diverse youth-serv­ing sys­tems, oppor­tu­ni­ties and resources that exist in the com­mu­ni­ty. Rec­og­nize that diver­gent views and rela­tion­ships often exist­ing between and across youth-serv­ing pro­fes­sion­als and sys­tems can be nego­ti­at­ed by address­ing mutu­al self-inter­est and by being account­able to shared goals and a com­mon vision of results.
3. Address­ing Race and Eth­nic Equi­ty and Inclu­sion Issues in Pol­i­cy and Practice
   Iden­ti­fy and chal­lenge dis­crim­i­na­to­ry poli­cies and prac­tices in our youth-serv­ing sys­tems and shift mind­sets that focus on prob­lems rather than poten­tial for youth of col­or. Learn a frame­work based on pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment and, work­ing with a diverse group of stake­hold­ers, explore strate­gies for elim­i­nat­ing poli­cies and prac­tices that have a dis­parate effect on youth of color.
4. Engag­ing Youth Voice and Empow­er­ing Youth Leadership
   Youth have the right, respon­si­bil­i­ty and pow­er to be archi­tects of plan­ning and deci­sion mak­ing about their goals and path in life. Gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of how to build healthy and pro­duc­tive rela­tion­ships with youth and both iden­ti­fy and advo­cate for oppor­tu­ni­ties to help youth thrive and cre­ate their own path­way to success.
5. Fos­ter­ing Pos­i­tive Fam­i­ly Rela­tion­ships in the Juve­nile Jus­tice System
   Estab­lish­ing pos­i­tive, authen­tic and trust­ing rela­tion­ships with the par­ents and fam­i­lies of youth in the jus­tice sys­tem is essen­tial to help­ing youth par­tic­i­pate in and tran­si­tion suc­cess­ful­ly from place­ments into pos­i­tive com­mu­ni­ty life. Learn to strength­en fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty ties in ways that rec­og­nize and pro­mote their role in the devel­op­ment of youth plans.
6. Trans­form­ing Pol­i­cy and Prac­tice: Pre­sen­ta­tions and Recommendations
   Learn to exam­ine poli­cies and prac­tices to ensure that juve­nile jus­tice sys­tems sus­tain reform using pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment and work­ing across youth-serv­ing sys­tems. Devel­op rec­om­men­da­tions for lead­er­ship with­in each jurisdiction.

The RJJ cur­ricu­lum mod­ules are being released in an e‑learning train­ing for­mat in 2022 and will be used to sup­port RJJ teach­ing and learn­ing. All RJJ course mod­ules and resources also are avail­able to RJJ train­ers via an RJJ group space on JDAIcon­nect.

When the train­ers con­duct their local RJJ pro­gram­ming between Novem­ber 2022 and April 2023, they could choose to do so vir­tu­al­ly, in-per­son or a hybrid of the two.

How do we apply to par­tic­i­pate in the RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers Insti­tute for 2022?

Eli­gi­ble appli­cants can apply online at RJJ 5.0 T4T 2022 through July 22, 2022. Appli­ca­tions must iden­ti­fy their team of up to five (5) train­ers, two (2) of whom will par­tic­i­pate in the Octo­ber 18–20, 2022, T4T Institute.

What is the cost to par­tic­i­pate in the RJJ insti­tute if our appli­ca­tion is selected?

There is no cost to par­tic­i­pate in the Phase 1 vir­tu­al train­ing ses­sions. There are costs asso­ci­at­ed with Phase 2. Appli­cants are respon­si­ble for the trav­el and dai­ly costs to send one par­tic­i­pant to the in-per­son T4T insti­tute in Den­ver. SMI, through the Casey Foun­da­tion, will cov­er the cost of the sec­ond par­tic­i­pant in the two-per­son team. These expens­es are esti­mat­ed at $1,000–$1,500, depend­ing on trav­el costs to Den­ver. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of efforts led by com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions should indi­cate in their appli­ca­tion if they will need addi­tion­al finan­cial sup­port to have a sec­ond train­er par­tic­i­pate in the Institute.

How can I learn more about RJJ before appli­ca­tions are due?

Watch the June 28 infor­ma­tion ses­sion from the SMI and Casey team along with sev­er­al RJJ 3.0 and 4.0 train­ers about the RJJ expe­ri­ence and the imple­men­ta­tion of the ini­tia­tive in dif­fer­ent areas around the coun­try. Dur­ing the video, you will learn:

• a brief his­to­ry of the RJJ mod­el and results from recent implementation;
• an overview of the RJJ 5.0 Train­ing-for-Train­ers Insti­tute Phase 1 and Phase 2;
• expec­ta­tions for local deliv­ery and imple­men­ta­tion of RJJ in 2022–23;
• what appli­cants need to know to apply and what to expect if select­ed; and
• fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions and answers.

Inter­est­ed appli­cants can also vis­it the RJJ 5.0 page on JDAIcon­nect Train­ing.

Not yet a mem­ber of JDAIcon­nect? Fol­low these five easy steps to set up your account. On JDAIcon­nect, you will be able to access RJJ infor­ma­tion and link to many excit­ing youth jus­tice resources.

1. Vis­it part​ners​.aecf​.org (you will be redi­rect­ed to the login screen on Casey’s Com­mu­ni­ty Café.
2. Click on ​“Don’t have an account or need help” link below login options.
3. Click ​“Cre­ate Account,” fill in your infor­ma­tion. Click ​“Reg­is­ter” to com­plete the account set up.
4. Once in the Com­mu­ni­ty Café, click on the ​“add apps” to add JDAIcon­nect to your homepage.
5. Click on the JDAIcon­nect but­ton to enter the community.

What are key dates between now and Decem­ber 2020?

What should I do if I have more questions?

Please con­tact David Brown, senior asso­ciate at the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion at debrown@​aecf.​org or Kathy Fly­nn Wood­land, direc­tor of Field Ser­vices at SMI, katflynn@​schoolandmain.​org.