From Conversation to Collaboration: How Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Agencies Can Work Together to Improve Outcomes for Dual Status Youth
Published May 8, 2014, RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Jusitce
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Dual status youth cross the agency lines of the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, yet the agencies do not always communicate or collaborate on plans to serve the youth. Research and experience indicate that an integrated, multi-system approach can effectively yield better outcomes for youth and families, enhance system performance, and produce significant cost savings within communities.
The new white paper, “From Conversation to Collaboration: How Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Agencies Can Work Together to Improve Outcomes for Dual Status Youth,” highlights strategies that youth-serving systems can apply to begin developing a more integrated approach and looks at examples where system integration and coordination led to profound transformations with better outcomes for youth and communities.
Jurisdictions which successfully transformed their youth-serving agencies often required workers who had never before connected to collaborate with shared understandings and commitments on the needs of dual status youth. Released by the recently-launched Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, led by Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps, the white paper describes some of the challenges facing dual status youth, outlines the benefits of collaboration, and provides guidance for practitioners to begin a conversation.
