In a new private-public partnership, OJJDP and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation are jointly providing $2 million to support innovative and effective reforms in treatment and services for youth involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.
"We need to do what's right for America's children," said Melodee Hanes, Acting Administrator of OJJDP. "This partnership supports state and community efforts to protect youth from harm, hold them accountable for their actions, provide for rehabilitation, and improve public safety. In this tight economy, creatively partnering with a private organization such as MacArthur maximizes reform, while stretching limited public dollars."
OJJDP and the MacArthur Foundation each will provide a total of $1 million over 2 years to four organizations to support juvenile justice reform in four target areas. These organizations will in turn offer states and local governments training and technical assistance to improve mental health services for youth, reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system, and better coordinate treatment and services for youth involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. The targeted reforms include:
The partnership will build on the MacArthur Foundation's Models for Change initiative, that seeks to create successful and replicable models of juvenile justice systems reform. OJJDP and MacArthur selected these four organizations because they helped develop, field test, and evaluate effective best practice models included in the Models for Change initiative. The MacArthur Foundation has invested more than $100 million in promising juvenile justice reforms since 2004.