JAJCF News

This Spring, the Community Partnership Team has expanded its outreach, this time to the faith-based community. An initial session was held at the Court in March inviting clergy members from throughout the Chicago area to learn more about the Juvenile Court process and to begin a series of discussions about how the Court can work more effectively in partnership with the faith-based community. With over 50 attendees, addressed by IDCFS Director Erwin McEwen and Chief of the State's Attorney's Juvenile Division Kathleen Bankhead among others, this represented an important start to what is hoped to be a productive dialogue.

In Child Protection, two major initiatives are underway. The Youth Empowerment Initiative engaged ten wards of the Court in a six-session work group to both provide feedback to the Court about how to more effectively engage youth in the court process as well as to guide Court practice and policy related to youth involvement. They presented their report to judges, attorneys, and other Court and DCFS personnel and are now working with the project to reach out to other youth to solicit their engagement in their own court cases. Additionally, the Family Visiting Team is working with Norma Ginther, a nationally recognized speaker on family contact, to develop a strategy to fundamentally change the way that the Court thinks about contact between biological parents and their children—as well as children and their siblings. An initial “trial run” of a planned courtwide training was conducted to very positive reviews overall. Based on this feedback, revisions are being made to the curriculum and two courtwide sessions are planned for the Fall.

Finally, April 27 th through May 1 st , the Court will celebrate its 3 rd Annual Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) Week. BARJ is a philosophy that recognizes the responsibility of the Court to balance three key stakeholders interests in the system—the victim of the crime, the youth who perpetrated it, and the community where it was committed. As BARJ principles assert, the responsibility of the Court is to hold the youth accountable for his actions by requiring him (to the extent possible) to “repair the harm” that he has caused to his victim and to recognize that he has also harmed the community where the crime took place. The system further seeks to help the young person to develop the skills he will need to successfully avoid further contact with the Court. BARJ Week this year will feature:

Please join us for the BARJ Awards Ceremony on Wed., April 29 th at 1:30 p.m. in the atrium of the Cook County Juvenile Court.

The Court's Community Partnership (CP) Team is involved in two major efforts this Fall. First, it is serving as the community advisory board for the Chicago Public School 's federally-funded Youth Engaged in Schools program. This effort represents an extremely important partnership between the Chicago Public Schools and the court system to both: 1) prevent unnecessary court referrals by identifying at-risk youth and providing help and support, particularly in the crucial transition from 8 th grade to high school, and 2) for those youth who do experience school disruption due to detention or incarceration, to facilitate a smooth transition back to their community or other appropriate school setting. Encouraging school attendance and success is critical to helping youth to avoid ongoing court involvement.

Additionally, the CP Team is working in partnership with a broad base of community players, including the South Suburban Mayors and Managers, the South Suburban Association of Chiefs of Police, and South Suburban School Administrators to respond to a dramatic increase in juvenile court referrals in the Southern Suburbs by using restorative justice practices to avoid unnecessary formal court referral and processing. This effort is being kicked-off with an Administrators Forum for public officials to get them fully onboard and excited about the potential impact of restorative justice practices to be followed by a Community Summit to explore how such practices might be implemented in south suburban communities.

This summer has been a busy one for the Court's Youth Empowerment Initiative, spearheaded by the JAJCF and the Court Culture Child Protection Team. This initiative is dedicated to increasing youth engagement in the Child Protection court process with three primary goals: 1) to involve youth in the decision-making in their own court case to ensure that the Court is choosing the best possible course of action on behalf of their family; 2) to empower young people to see themselves as capable of influencing what happens in their lives, rather than seeing their lives as controlled by a “faceless” court system; and 3) to engage youth voices in helping to guide the court's ongoing reform efforts. The Youth Empowerment Initiative represents a commitment by the Cook County Juvenile Court to seek out the wisdom and perspective that young people in the system have to offer in guiding their own cases and in informing systems change. The project has been funded by Hedge Funds Care, the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, and most recently, the Field Foundation of Illinois.

Over the last few months, a variety of activities have been undertaken to advance this initiative:

The Jane Addams Juvenile Court Foundation is pleased to announce the election of two new board members: Stephen H. Pugh and Genita C. Robinson. Mr. Pugh is the President of Pugh, Jones, Johnson & Quandt, P.C. and has more than 30 years experience in the legal profession. Ms. Robinson currently works as a private consultant and has more than a dozen years in the legal and education professions, including four years with the Chicago Public Schools. Both new members have extensive records of civic engagement and we look forward to their contribution to JAJCF.

JAJCF will be hosting a dinner for Court personnel to meet with perhaps the least heard player in the Child Protection System—the parents accused of abuse and neglect of their children. This dinner will be an opportunity for them to learn a bit more about the Court process and the players within it and, perhaps more importantly, for Court personnel to hear from parents their experience of going through the Court system—how could we have been more helpful in their efforts to make the changes necessary to have their children returned to them? Was the Court respectful of them and their children? What changes do they believe need to be made within our Court system? This dinner will be a very rare opportunity for a candid discussion between parents and Court personnel.

The Cook County Juvenile Court, in partnership with the Jane Addams Juvenile Court Foundation, is hosting its second annual Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) Week from April 14 through April 18, 2008. The week is designed to celebrate the Court's commitment and accomplishments related to BARJ and to reinforce that commitment through training, information fairs, and a variety of educational activities. BARJ Week 2008 included:

Awards for youth who have embraced opportunities to restore their victims and community and developed important skills to help them to avoid future contact with the Court

Recognition of two community agencies for their commitment to the BARJ principles in their work in support of youth referred to the Court

Unveiling of large tile mosaics created by youth on probation in collaboration with a local artist and an art exhibit by youth from across the city who have been working together and learning about restorative justice

Victims Day designed to ensure that the Court does not lose sight of its obligation to the victims of youth crime

In cooperation with all of the offices of the Court, JAJCF has helped to create a core training, mandatory for attorneys in all the offices of the Court, to ensure a common understanding of the overarching goals of the Court and the developmental issues it faces. This training covers such topics as alcohol and substance abuse, mental illness, child development, and domestic violence—all in the context of the Court's own philosophical framework. The training is focused around a theoretical case scenario with participants actively involved through small groups in considering alternatives, with the guidance of highly experienced experts in each field. This training has become a routine part of the Court's practice. This training, along with numerous other trainings developed through our committees at the Court, now qualifies for Continuing Legal Education credit.