Our Mission

We empower youth justice leaders and agencies to improve policies, practices, systems, and outcomes for at-risk and justice impacted youth.

Our Objectives

As a National Resource Center, our primary objectives are to:

• Advance youth justice reform at the local, state, and national levels by facilitating the adoption and integration of evidence-based approaches and best practices shown to improve outcomes for youth and enhance system performance.
• Foster and support self-assessment, analysis, and evaluation among youth justice stakeholders, agencies, and communities.
• Assist youth justice systems and stakeholders in establishing system performance and youth outcome measures in support of fidelity and sustainability of practice, ongoing capacity to evaluate impact, and replication of policies and practices.
• Promote and support collaboration among youth justice agencies, stakeholders, and primary community partners to achieve positive system transformation.

Primary Focus Areas

We provide consultation, technical assistance, training, and resources in five primary focus areas:

1. Advancing best practice in youth justice systems.
2. Improving outcomes for youth with involvement in both the child welfare and youth justice systems, known as dual status youth.
3. Reviewing and enhancing probation, court, and youth justice system policies, practice and performance.
4. Developing comprehensive diversion and alternative response systems that enhance public safety, accountability, and positive youth outcomes through collaborative and restorative justice approaches.
5. Supporting positive youth development through growth-focused case management.

Learn more about our Technical Assistance Initiatives and On-site Trainings.

Core Principles for System Improvement

The National Resource Center prioritizes the following five Core Principles driving youth justice system improvement at every key decision point:

1. Use validated risk and needs assessments to guide supervision, service, and resource allocation decisions, to include routine screening for active trauma symptoms.
2. Implement evidence-based and promising programs and services that are proven to reduce recidivism and improve a variety of other youth outcomes, and evaluate the results of these services through effective data collection and analysis.
3. Embrace a cross-system and collaborative approach to address the youth’s needs.
4. Examine data on race/ethnicity, paying special attention to the arrest and detention stages at the front end of the system to develop consistent policies and practices that seek to reduce racial and ethnic disparities.
5. Use operational tenets of implementation science and change management to develop an organizational infrastructure with capacity to drive, train, coach, and mentor system change to ensure sustainability.

To learn more about the priorities shaping our approach, please see our resolution statement, A Call to Action: Applying Best Practices for Successful Transformation of Youth Justice.

Our Story and Looking Ahead

The National Resource Center for the Transformation of Youth Justice was launched in 2013 as the Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, through the generous support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The origins of the National Resource Center are grounded in the MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change: Systems Reform in Juvenile Justice initiative, which supported state and local efforts to advance fair, effective, and developmentally informed approaches to youth justice.

Since its inception, our staff has been at the forefront of efforts to strengthen youth justice systems nationwide, building on a depth of experience within youth justice, child welfare, and behavioral health systems in state and local jurisdictions.  The National Resource Center is uniquely poised to build upon our experience and impact of the multiple jurisdictions who have achieved transformative change, continuing to enhance the capacities of jurisdictions nationwide to serve all justice impacted youth and families. The National Resource Center is passionately committed to expansion of our partnerships that will result in enhanced system performance and improved youth outcomes. We look forward to working with you to accomplish these achievable goals.