Announcing the 2024 Capstone of the Year Award Winner!

Posted in Announcements

We are so pleased to announce Flathead County, Montana as the 2024 Capstone of the Year Award Winner! The Capstone of the Year Award recognizes the Certificate Program participant or team who has made the most significant progress through their Capstone Project by promoting the well-being of youth through multi-system approaches in their community. ​

The Flathead County Team’s Capstone Project focused on addressing incidents of harm on school campuses, limiting the overuse of exclusionary discipline, and emphasizing a community-driven approach that promotes positive youth development and community safety. The team partnered with the Center for Restorative Youth Justice (CRYJ) to offer youth an alternative to citations and suspensions for school-based offenses. 

What started as a pilot program in one Kalispell high school for first-time drug and alcohol offenses has expanded into a program that serves youth with first-time misdemeanor or status offenses within all three Kalispell high schools, an adjacent high school, and four local middle schools. The Montana Board of Crime Control has recognized the Flathead County Team’s work at the state level, noting that “this program is the only one of its kind in Montana, creating immediate and long-lasting benefits to all those directly served and the greater community.”