Juvenile Justice Applied Leadership Network Grant

Juvenile Justice Applied Leadership Network Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Annie E Casey Foundation
Last Updated: May 07, 2025

Summary

The Juvenile Justice Applied Leadership Network, supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, fosters collaboration among teams of juvenile justice leaders to improve outcomes for at-risk youth. Over a 14-month program, participants identify and implement meaningful changes, focusing on community-based approaches for young Black and Latino men. Teams are encouraged to include diverse voices and foster partnerships that promote equity and well-being, ultimately aiming to prevent legal system involvement and enhance community support for youth.

Overview

NOTE: In-per­son atten­dance is manda­to­ry at each sem­i­nar. Gen­er­al­ly, teams will trav­el and arrive the day or evening pri­or to the first day of the sem­i­nars. Juvenile Justice Applied Leadership Network About ALN ALN is root­ed in Casey’s Results Count® lead­er­ship devel­op­ment approach and seeks to equip lead­ers with the skills and strate­gies need­ed to advance pow­er­ful, mea­sur­able and equi­table results on behalf of young peo­ple who are fac­ing steep bar­ri­ers to suc­cess. Today’s ALN alum­ni base spans 53 lead­ers in 21 states. As ALN alum­ni, these lead­ers have access to peer sup­port and a col­lab­o­ra­tive learn­ing mod­el that helps them con­tin­ue to employ a results-dri­ven frame­work in their home organizations. What to Expect Dur­ing the 14-month pro­gram, par­tic­i­pants will iden­ti­fy the changes they want to achieve with­in their sys­tem and com­mu­ni­ty. Team mem­bers will then work togeth­er to devise, imple­ment, refine and mon­i­tor their progress toward mean­ing­ful change. For the Class 5 cycle, Casey is par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in ele­vat­ing com­mu­ni­ty-based approach­es that will improve out­comes for young black men and young Lati­no men. Such efforts may seek to pre­vent police encoun­ters, divert can­di­dates away from the legal sys­tem or sup­port sim­i­lar changes that can help lev­el life’s play­ing field for these at-risk youth. Selection Criteria The Juve­nile Jus­tice Applied Lead­er­ship Net­work is for teams from juris­dic­tions seek­ing to advance the well-being of youth involved with or at risk of involve­ment with the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem. ALN is seek­ing juris­dic­tions that are — or are inter­est­ed in — pro­mot­ing com­mu­ni­ty-based approach­es and pro­grams that divert young peo­ple before they are ever referred to the legal sys­tem and pre­vent young peo­ple from encoun­ter­ing police in the first place. Prospec­tive juris­dic­tions should be inter­est­ed in chang­ing the poli­cies, prac­tices and orga­ni­za­tion­al cul­ture of their juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem to sig­nif­i­cant­ly shrink the foot­print of the sys­tem; reduce all forms of con­fine­ment; pro­mote heal­ing and reha­bil­i­ta­tion for youth with the most seri­ous offense his­to­ries; and strength­en their part­ner­ships with com­mu­ni­ty groups. A Focus on Diversion and Prevention For this ALN class, there is spe­cif­ic inter­est in teams that seek to estab­lish a con­tin­u­um of pre­ven­tion and diver­sion process­es to hold youth account­able for their behav­ior with­out resort­ing to legal sanc­tions, court over­sight or the threat of con­fine­ment. Instead, com­mu­ni­ties would address pre­dictable ado­les­cent mis­be­hav­ior out­side of the court sys­tem with com­mu­ni­ty-cen­tered approach­es and assets. Respons­es would include sur­round­ing youth most at risk for jus­tice sys­tem involve­ment, specif­i­cal­ly Black and Lati­no young men, with the pos­i­tive con­nec­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties that have the high­est like­li­hood of max­i­miz­ing young people’s success.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. ALN appli­cants should be teams of juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem lead­ers, com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers and oth­ers who are work­ing to sup­port young peo­ple at risk of or already expe­ri­enc­ing legal sys­tem involve­ment.A team should have between four and six mem­bers who rep­re­sent the con­tin­u­um of sup­port from pre­ven­tion to reen­try after con­fine­ment for youth and young adults involved with or at risk of involve­ment with the jus­tice system.Prospec­tive teams must include at least one mem­ber from the juve­nile jus­tice or pro­ba­tion agency and should con­sid­er includ­ing mem­bers from relat­ed pub­lic sys­tems and com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions, such as the fol­low­ing types of stakeholders:grass­roots or com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions serv­ing young peo­ple or com­mu­ni­ty interests; advo­cates for social jus­tice and racial jus­tice, includ­ing faith-based groups; youth-serv­ing sys­tems, such as edu­ca­tion, child wel­fare, work­force devel­op­ment or employ­ment; and young lead­ers active in their com­mu­ni­ties, espe­cial­ly in com­mu­ni­ties most affect­ed by the legal sys­tem, or peo­ple with direct expe­ri­ence in the youth jus­tice system.In com­pos­ing the team, con­sid­er two or more mem­bers who have pre­vi­ous­ly worked well togeth­er to advance pos­i­tive change. The team com­po­si­tion should reflect the fol­low­ing characteristics:Racial, eth­nic and gen­der diversity Diver­si­ty of voic­es and points of view Reform-mind­ed orientation Strong ori­en­ta­tion to equi­ty and well-being for young peo­ple and fam­i­lies who face the steep­est bar­ri­ers to success Prac­tice and expe­ri­ence using data to inform decision-making Will­ing­ness to build part­ner­ships between com­mu­ni­ty (e.g., fam­i­ly, youth, com­mu­ni­ty) and pub­lic systems Action-ori­ent­ed, bold and able to use influ­ence and lead­er­ship to make a mea­sur­able differenceTeam mem­bers should have the autho­riza­tion, time and com­mit­ment to ful­ly par­tic­i­pate in the pro­gram and have a role and the author­i­ty (for­mal or infor­mal) to make changes and deci­sions in their sys­tem or com­mu­ni­ty and move the work back home.Teams can apply regard­less of their jurisdiction’s con­nec­tion to the Casey’s Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive® or pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion site work.