Center for Juvenile Justice Reform - Certificate Programs

Participants in the Multi-System Integration Certificate Program are required to develop and implement a Capstone Project during the twelve-month period following the completion of their Certificate Program session. The Capstone Project is a set of actions each participant will design to initiate or continue multi-systems reform efforts. The Capstone Project is required of every Certificate Program participant and must be approved by the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR) for successful completion of the Certificate Program.

The Capstone Project provides an opportunity to apply and develop learning from the Certificate Program. The Capstone Project must be an effort that involves more than one system that serves or interacts with crossover youth and their families. The project can be targeted on a variety of areas related to this topic, for example, reduction of entry into the system and institutional placement, addressing disparities and disproportionality, cross-system case planning and management, etc. It may also be focused on creating an advocacy agenda supporting a multi-systems approach or conducting research on topics related to crossover youth or multi-systems reform. Participants are provided with technical assistance from faculty to aid in the design or implementation of their Project.

The following are some examples of Capstone Projects from previous participants:

Develop an integrated protocol for identifying and tracking foster youth in the criminal court system in order to ensure they receive the necessary support services to reduce the likelihood of reoffending.
Develop a practice model to improve the wellbeing of child welfare involved youth by reducing their entry into and length of stay at detention facilities.
Develop an interagency, coordinated case planning model for youth in foster care committed to the Department of Juvenile Justice who are expected to return to foster care in order to increase the number of foster youth returning to a family based foster care placement or permanency. This project also aims to increase the number of youth who show improvements in independent living skills.
Focus on data collection and post screening coordination of services for juvenile justice and mental health involved youth. Also included is a financial mapping process to assess the potential for deploying existing resources.
Reduce recidivism and crossover by developing and using a tool to evaluate the quality, thoroughness, and responsiveness of assessment and follow-up activities in order to develop recommendations related to the deployment of assessment tools in juvenile court systems.
Plan/implement a pilot diversion program that would redirect youth referred to the County Attorney's Office for a low-level offense stemming from an incident in a school.
Create a service delivery system that promotes healthy youth development. Identify all of the services delivered to at risk youth and their families by county departments and contracted community agencies, the funding sources for these services and whether or not these services are similar in nature and provided by more than one county department. The outcome of the analysis will be recommendations on how services can be integrated across departments to improve access and outcomes for at risk youth and their families.
Improve outcomes for crossover youth by undergoing organizational restructuring to provide a more collaborative and more evidence-based approach to service delivery.
Develop a new, comprehensive performance measure structure that better reflects the agency's mission and sets up an opportunity to better collaborate with agency partners.
Create an interagency wraparound (pilot) model to serve juvenile justice youth as they leave facilities.
Publish a white paper/report on the number of "dual system" children who end up committed to the juvenile justice system as compared to the rate of commitment of the general youth population in the state.
Develop a report analyzing the service needs of crossover youth by examining the intensity of services required by these youth in the following areas: mental health, special education and substance abuse treatment.

CJJR recognizes the individual or team who has made the most significant progress in promoting the well-being of youth through multi-system approaches in their community with the Capstone of the Year Award. The recipient of this award can be any CJJR Fellow from any year. The winner of the award receives a personalized plaque and is awarded free travel for one individual to a CJJR event of their choosing. CJJR typically holds one to two national symposia per year on topics related to multi-systems integration, such as education, disproportionality and family engagement. The award recipient will also be featured on the CJJR website and in the CJJR Fellows Network Newsletter.

CAPSTONE PROJECTS