FAQs About the Train-the-Trainer Opportunity for Reimagining Juvenile Justice

• What is Reimag­in­ing Juve­nile Justice? 
• How has RJJ been implemented?
• What does the RJJ 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute look like in 2020?
• Who can apply for the RJJ 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute? Which agen­cies or orga­ni­za­tions should par­tic­i­pate in the training?
• 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 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Institute?
• What is the RJJ cur­ricu­lum and how is it delivered?
• What is an ide­al num­ber of par­tic­i­pants in an RJJ train­ing cohort?
• How do we apply to par­tic­i­pate in the RJJ 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute for 2020?
• 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?
• What are key dates between now and Decem­ber 2020?
• Who do I con­tact with addi­tion­al 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 the Foundation’s pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion work.

The train­ing is designed for pro­fes­sion­als work­ing with youth involved in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem and their fam­i­lies and 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 pro­tec­tive fac­tors and strengths, rather than mere­ly focus on risk fac­tors and problems.

Train­ing in RJJ is found­ed on a core cur­ricu­lum of six course mod­ules designed by SMI in 2015–16 with the input and assis­tance of spe­cial­ists and pro­fes­sion­als in the field of youth work, child wel­fare and juve­nile justice.

How has RJJ been implemented?

The RJJ cur­ricu­lum was pilot­ed by SMI in Mass­a­chu­setts in 2016–17 with 21 pro­fes­sion­als rep­re­sent­ing a vari­ety of agen­cies and diverse roles serv­ing youth and fam­i­lies involved in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem. In 2018, the Pima Coun­ty JDAI® site, locat­ed in Tuc­son, Ari­zona, was select­ed to repli­cate RJJ (2.0) 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.

To expand the initiative’s nation­al foot­print, the Casey Foun­da­tion launched RJJ 3.0 with a Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute. Fol­low­ing a nation­wide com­pe­ti­tion, 15 sites were select­ed: eight states, four of which part­nered with coun­ty enti­ties, and sev­en local juris­dic­tions. The first RJJ 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.

What does the RJJ 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute look like in 2020?

Because of the COVID-19 glob­al pan­dem­ic, this year’s RJJ 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute will be held vir­tu­al­ly through a series of online train­ing ses­sions facil­i­tat­ed by SMI and deliv­ered via Zoom with sup­port from our part­ners at the Pre­tri­al Jus­tice Insti­tute (PJI). We are launch­ing a nation­al com­pe­ti­tion in August 2020 and antic­i­pate select­ing up to 20 sites from around the coun­try that com­mit to enrolling a team of three train­ers to par­tic­i­pate in the insti­tute. Select­ed train­ers should plan for approx­i­mate­ly 20 hours of online train­ing that will com­mence in Octo­ber 2020.

Who can apply for the RJJ 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute? Which agen­cies or orga­ni­za­tions should par­tic­i­pate in the training?

RJJ is open to any state or local coali­tion of part­ners serv­ing jus­tice-involved youth, includ­ing JDAI sites and oth­er juris­dic­tions seek­ing to improve their sys­tem and youth out­comes by pro­vid­ing alter­na­tives to sys­tem involve­ment and incar­cer­a­tion, instill­ing a pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment mind­set and increas­ing cross-sys­tem col­lab­o­ra­tion. Appli­cants must include juve­nile pro­ba­tion as mem­bers of their over­all core lead­er­ship group and as par­tic­i­pants in local train­ing cohorts. A cross-sec­tion of agen­cies, com­mu­ni­ty- and faith-based orga­ni­za­tions, youth and fam­i­ly pro­grams, courts, pub­lic edu­ca­tion, local law enforce­ment, par­ents and fam­i­ly mem­bers, sys­tem-involved youth and oth­ers are encour­aged to par­tic­i­pate in the local train­ing cohorts.

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

Lead­er­ship Com­mit­ment: We need ded­i­cat­ed lead­ers who are informed; who under­stand, pro­mote and sup­port sys­tems change; and who are com­mit­ted to fos­ter­ing a pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment mind­set with a cross-sys­tems approach with­in their jurisdictions.

• A lead­er­ship struc­ture is in place that engages and col­lab­o­rates 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 struc­ture agree to take into con­sid­er­a­tion inno­v­a­tive pol­i­cy and prac­tice rec­om­men­da­tions that arise out of their jurisdiction’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the institute.
• Appli­cant agency and pro­gram lead­er­ship com­mit to the tenets of the RJJ cur­ricu­lum and instruc­tion­al approach as part of pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment offer­ings with­in the agency or pro­gram and across the jurisdiction.
• A cen­tral point of con­tact from the lead­er­ship struc­ture will be des­ig­nat­ed as the appli­cant and will help ensure full par­tic­i­pa­tion in the RJJ initiative.

Train­ing Invest­ment: We seek appli­cants com­mit­ted to invest­ing in the over­all RJJ pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment process — approx­i­mate­ly 20 hours of syn­chro­nous online train­ing, i.e., facil­i­ta­tors and all train­ers will meet simul­ta­ne­ous­ly at spe­cif­ic times — and to ensur­ing that their new­ly trained instruc­tors are sup­port­ed and able to deliv­er the RJJ cur­ricu­lum with­in their juris­dic­tions between Jan­u­ary and Sep­tem­ber 2021.

• Appli­cants cre­ate a train­er-selec­tion process to iden­ti­fy a team of not less than two, but opti­mal­ly three, expe­ri­enced juve­nile jus­tice pro­fes­sion­als who are skilled in adult learn­ing method­olo­gies, embrace the prin­ci­ples of RJJ, can ful­ly com­mit to the RJJ train­ing cal­en­dar and are able to deliv­er the cur­ricu­lum between Jan­u­ary and Sep­tem­ber 2021.
• Lead­er­ship part­ners (includ­ing agency and pro­gram super­vi­sors) com­mit the nec­es­sary time for train­ers to attend SMI vir­tu­al train­ing ses­sions, webi­na­rs and coach­ing ses­sions and to deliv­er the six, six-hour RJJ course mod­ules between Jan­u­ary and Sep­tem­ber 2021. (In 2021, RJJ local train­ing options may include vir­tu­al, face-to-face or blend­ed instruc­tion depend­ing on local circumstances.)
• Appli­cants must include an out­reach and engage­ment strat­e­gy for iden­ti­fy­ing pro­fes­sion­als, youth, fam­i­ly mem­bers and oth­ers who will con­sti­tute the par­tic­i­pants in the applicant’s local/​state RJJ train­ing cohort.

Who should a site select as a train­er to par­tic­i­pate in the RJJ 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Institute?

A three-per­son train­ing team is opti­mal and should be com­prised of indi­vid­u­als who:

• rep­re­sent a mix of cul­tur­al, eth­nic and racial back­grounds that reflect the jurisdiction;
• 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
• are able to com­mit to the full com­ple­ment of SMI’s vir­tu­al train­ing ses­sions, webi­na­rs, coach­ing, addi­tion­al mate­ri­als and resource review, and the time nec­es­sary to plan and deliv­er the RJJ cur­ricu­lum between Jan­u­ary and Sep­tem­ber 2021.

What is the RJJ cur­ricu­lum and how is it delivered?

The RJJ cur­ricu­lum con­sists of six course mod­ules. We are cur­rent­ly design­ing a ful­ly online RJJ course tar­get­ed for release in ear­ly 2021; how­ev­er, all cur­rent RJJ course mate­ri­als and resources are avail­able to RJJ train­ers via the RJJ clear­ing­house space on JDAIcon­nect. RJJ train­ing deliv­ery options include:

• an online plat­form, such as Zoom, where mod­ule con­tent can be deliv­ered vir­tu­al­ly in small­er blocks of time — train­ers work with RJJ coach­es to help design an appro­pri­ate deliv­ery mech­a­nism and fol­low up;
• face-to-face in class­room set­ting — gen­er­al­ly a total of six hours of class­room time for each mod­ule, for a total of 36 class­room hours; or
• blend­ed or hybrid — once the ful­ly online RJJ cur­ricu­lum is avail­able, train­ers can choose a mix of asyn­chro­nous vir­tu­al learn­ing (i.e., at a time that works for the indi­vid­ual) of RJJ con­cepts and mate­ri­als that can be com­bined with facil­i­tat­ed dis­cus­sion and peer review through syn­chro­nous online delivery.

The Course Modules

1. Intro­duc­tion to Pos­i­tive Youth Devel­op­ment Fundamentals
   Learn the basic core con­cepts of pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment and its appli­ca­tion in the juve­nile jus­tice are­na. Under­stand the fun­da­men­tal inter­con­nec­tions between ado­les­cent brain devel­op­ment and pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment. Rec­og­nize the devel­op­men­tal assets nec­es­sary 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
   Chal­lenge and change insti­tu­tion­al and struc­tur­al racism in our youth-serv­ing sys­tems, includ­ing dis­man­tling a deficit mind­set that skews how deci­sion mak­ers think of youth of col­or by focus­ing on their prob­lems rather than poten­tial. Learn to replace this mind­set with a frame­work based on pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment. With a diverse stake­hold­er col­lab­o­ra­tive, 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 their life-goal plan­ning and deci­sion mak­ing. Par­tic­i­pants will 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 indi­vid­ual 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. Although there is no one-size-fits-all method for estab­lish­ing such rela­tion­ships, pro­fes­sion­als can help strength­en fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty ties that rec­og­nize and pro­mote their role in the devel­op­ment of youth plans.
6. Trans­form­ing Pol­i­cy and Prac­tice: Pre­sen­ta­tions and Recommendations
   To ensure that REEI-informed pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment and cross-sys­tem strate­gies become the pre­vail­ing frame­work for juve­nile jus­tice sys­tems seek­ing last­ing reform, poli­cies and prac­tices need to be reex­am­ined, refined, often changed, then sys­tem­atized into a new way of doing busi­ness. Rec­om­men­da­tions for these changes will be made to lead­er­ship with­in the juris­dic­tion for action.

What is an ide­al num­ber of par­tic­i­pants in an RJJ train­ing cohort?

Train­ing teams should plan to enroll between 25 and 30 par­tic­i­pants for a local cohort roster.

How do we apply to par­tic­i­pate in the RJJ 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute for 2020?

Eli­gi­ble appli­cants can apply online. Appli­ca­tions will be accept­ed through Sep­tem­ber 15, 2020, and each site must iden­ti­fy their team of three train­ers who will par­tic­i­pate in the fall institute.

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

There is no finan­cial cost to par­tic­i­pate in the RJJ insti­tute in 2020. Due to the cur­rent COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, all ses­sions will be held vir­tu­al­ly, with facil­i­ta­tion by SMI, sup­port­ed by the Pre­tri­al Jus­tice Insti­tute, and fund­ing from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion. All cur­ricu­lum mate­ri­als, resources, coach­ing sup­port and fol­low-up will be avail­able to each select­ed site and RJJ trainer.

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

Please join us at 2p.m. EDT, on Tues­day, August 25, 2020, for an RJJ 4.0 Webinar

Hear direct­ly from our SMI/​Casey/​PJI team along with sev­er­al of our RJJ 3.0 train­ers to learn more about the RJJ expe­ri­ence and the imple­men­ta­tion of the ini­tia­tive in dif­fer­ent areas around the coun­try. Dur­ing the 60-minute ses­sion you will have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to hear more about:

• the his­to­ry of the RJJ insti­tute and the experience/​results from recent implementation;
• an overview of the RJJ 4.0 Train-the-Train­er Insti­tute and vir­tu­al instruc­tion­al approach;
• expec­ta­tions for local imple­men­ta­tion of RJJ train­ing in 2021;
• 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 4.0 infor­ma­tion page on JDAIcon­nect, the online com­mu­ni­ty for juve­nile jus­tice reform. If you are not already a mem­ber of JDAIcon­nect, please reg­is­ter to ensure your access to all the RJJ infor­ma­tion and take full advan­tage of all the excit­ing resources avail­able through JDAI. Once reg­is­tered, please sign up for the webi­nar on August 25. On the RJJ page on JDAIcon­nect, you can post a ques­tion, learn more about the RJJ expe­ri­ence or con­nect with SMI or Casey Foun­da­tion staff who can answer spe­cif­ic ques­tions about RJJ and the appli­ca­tion process.

What are key dates between now and Decem­ber 2020?

Who do I con­tact with addi­tion­al questions?

Please con­tact David E. Brown, senior asso­ciate at the Casey Foun­da­tion. Also, you can post a ques­tion and learn more on the RJJ 4.0 infor­ma­tion page on the JDAIcon­nect online community.