The Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention brings together representatives from youth-serving federal agencies and youth-focused disciplines to coordinate federal programs related to delinquency prevention, missing and exploited children, and the detention/care of unaccompanied juveniles.

The Council’s March 2004 meeting provided Council members and the public with information on preventing and responding to truancy. Presentations focused on truancy reduction and improving the lives of disadvantaged youth:

	Catherine Cross Maple, Strategic Planning Officer, Albuquerque, NM, Public Schools, described how the Albuquerque Community Partnership for Preventing Truancy has improved school attendance by implementing a framework of early identification/ prevention, intervention, and response.
	Phelan Wyrick, Social Science Program Specialist, OJJDP, discussed OJJDP’s Strategic Planning Tool, which is being developed to help federal agencies and communities better address the problem of gangs and, potentially, other juvenile justice issues through integrated application of proven practices and programs.
	Karen Morison, Staff Director, White House Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth, described the Task Force’s final report, which proposes a Disadvantaged Youth Policy Initiative and recommends ways to develop and coordinate policy, maximize interagency collaboration, coordinate federal research, and evaluate effective program models.

Council meetings are held quarterly in Washington, DC, and are open to the public. Mentoring was the focus of the June 2004 meeting (for details, see the next issue of OJJDP News @ a Glance). The next meeting is scheduled for September 2004. For additional information, visit the Council’s Web page at www.juvenilecouncil.gov/.