Certificate Program for Teams/Breakthrough Series Collaborative

***The Center will be announcing its plans for programming in this area for 2010 at a future date.***

The Certificate Program Teams/Breakthrough Series Collaborative (CP/BSC) is a groundbreaking program of intensive study for leaders responsible for juvenile justice and child welfare policy development and implementation in their jurisdictions. The program began with a Certificate Program for teams of leaders from seven different jurisdictions, and led into a year-long Breakthrough Series Collaborative project on Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Integration. After completion of the five day Certificate Program held in late July 2008, each of the teams of leaders returned home and appointed interagency teams in their jurisdictions to advance the desired reforms.

In the fall of 2010 the interagency teams began the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC). These teams are initiating strategies and tests of change that target improving the many factors that contribute to poor outcomes for children known to both Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare. The interagency teams are engaging in a series of three learning sessions and action periods. During these periods, participating jurisdictions are identifing, developing and testing potentially promising strategies for improving practice and ultimately supporting multi-systems approaches that improve outcomes for children and youth. The Center faculty and national experts are providing ongoing support to the teams, helping to sustain and implement the learning and resulting plans that were developed while at Georgetown. The BSC is a specific quality improvement method that is designed to enable participating teams to make dramatic improvements in a focused practice topic over a short period of time. The intention of a BSC is not to create an entirely new body of knowledge. Instead it is intended to fill the gap between what has been identified as best practice and what is actually practiced in the field.