Training Institutes 2012 - National Technical Assistance Center for ...

INSTITUTES
INSTITUTE #28 8:30 AM FRIDAY • 1:30 PM SATURDAY • OSCEOLA 5-6
Cross-System Collaboration to Improve Outcomes: Partnering with Education
OBJECTIVES—Participants will learn:
1. To identify the unique educational needs and challenges of youth involved with the child welfare and/or juvenile
justice systems, including youth in residential and secure care facilities
2. How to implement best-practice strategies for addressing both the academic and social-emotional needs of youth
involved with child welfare and/or juvenile justice within the school setting
3. To describe strategies from systems of care and other communities for developing, implementing and sustaining strong
collaborations among juvenile justice, child welfare, education, mental health, and other child-serving agencies
4. How to engage in meaningful dialogue through an interactive World Café on strategies for achieving better
educational outcomes for youth involved with juvenile justice and child welfare in their communities
This Institute will focus on strategies for working across child-serving systems to improve educational outcomes for
youth with mental health challenges. To set the context, faculty will provide an overview of the research in this area,
based on a white paper developed by the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University, entitled
Addressing the Unmet Educational Needs of Children and Youth in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems.
Faculty will then focus on principles and practices associated with meeting the educational needs of youth in both
systems. The six guiding principles are: quality education services are critical, early education is essential, outcomes
that matter are measured, individually tailored support services for youth are provided, interagency communication and
collaboration is vital, and change requires within-agency and cross-agency leadership. Faculty will highlight the
strategies in two practice guides that address the principles of interagency communication and collaboration and
individually tailored support services for youth and their families.
Specific topics to be covered include:
• Overview of research on improving educational outcomes for youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems
• Principles for cross-system partnerships to improve educational outcomes for youth involved with multiple systems
• Effective strategies for cross-system partnerships from the perspectives of the child welfare, juvenile justice,
education, and mental health systems
• Strategies implemented in Hawaii involving interagency collaboration legislation and collaborative strategies across
children’s agencies and how these strategies can foster positive outcomes for young people
• Engaging communities in shared initiatives to support one or more of the highlighted strategies
Participants will engage in a World Café activity during which they will explore, through conversation, how they can
effectively remove barriers and build a bridge between education, juvenile justice, child welfare, and mental health in
order to foster educational success for youth involved with multiple systems. A World Café poses a question that
invokes meaningful dialogue to allow participants to share knowledge, explore ideas, and discuss ways in which real life
issues can be addressed within their communities. Faculty will include the perspectives of agency staff and
administrator from education, juvenile justice, child welfare, and mental health systems.
MODERATOR/PRESENTER: Simon Gonsoulin, M.Ed., Juvenile Justice Specialist, Technical Assistance Partnership
for Child and Family Mental Health, American Institutes for Research, Washington, DC
Kelly Stern, State Educational Specialist for School Based Behavioral Health, Department of Education, Honolulu, HI
Richard Weisgal, M.A., Child Welfare Specialist, Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health,
American Institutes for Research, Walnut Creek, CA
Kelly Wells, M.P.A., Child Welfare Specialist, Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health,
American Institutes for Research, Blythewood, SC
60 Training Institutes 2012