Systems Development Curriculum and Training: Developing a Collaborative and Comprehensive Plan To Provide Effective Substance Abuse Services for Juvenile Offenders

Systems Development Curriculum and Training: Developing a Collaborative and Comprehensive Plan To Provide Effective Substance Abuse Services for Juvenile Offenders
Cooperation, coordination, and collaboration are the "three C's" that form the basis of this curriculum and the effective interagency relationships it recommends -- common-sense yet difficult tasks that require the active commitment of all personnel and practitioners to plan new initiatives to respond to the decreasing resources and increasing demands placed on human services systems.
Two of the Nation's greatest causes of concern over the past two decades have been the increase in adolescent substance abuse and the rising juvenile crime rate. The causes of adolescent substance abuse and juvenile delinquency are many and varied, but the two are inextricably linked. The systems development curriculum focuses on developing effective interagency coordination and collaborative responses to these behaviors in the hope that scarce resources can be more effectively used to serve the growing number of substance-involved delinquent youth. The primary goal is to assist jurisdictions through a collaborative planning process that will allow them to develop, implement, and refine their own comprehensive strategies, recognizing that there are no right answers, only effective ones that must be modified to fit the needs of individual communities. Each participating jurisdiction determines the scope and type of services it should plan and provide.
During the training seminar, 5- to 10-person jurisdictional planning teams comprising representatives of juvenile justice, substance abuse services, and other interested stakeholders are introduced to a training map with various "landmarks" to guide their learning experience and tasks upon their return to their communities (see figure at bottom of page 7). Landmark 1 is the jumping off point, where participants discuss what they expect and how the process ahead may help meet them. To ensure that each participant has basic knowledge of the primary systems involved in the planning effort, the group discusses the history and present demands of the juvenile justice and substance abuse service systems.
Because all politics (and seminars) are local, landmark 2 is a discussion of how these systems operate in their individual jurisdictions and how they may be improved through coalition development and other strategies. Participants are guided through a community mapping process that is interactive as well as informative, and the results are used to guide team responses to future exercises and planning processes.
Developed in conjunction with the project's advisory panel, landmark 3 is the conceptual model -- akin to a market analysis -- that requires each team to analyze their community's resources and desires before designing a product they believe will meet their future needs.
Whereas landmark 1 is concrete in nature and landmarks 2 and 3 require participants to envision and brainstorm a community's possibilities, landmarks 4, 5, and 6 progressively return the trainee teams to the concrete by asking them to examine demands made upon them and their agencies and realistic procedures to use upon returning to their communities.
Landmark 4 asks the teams to review who the stakeholders are in the issue of providing comprehensive services to substance-involved youth in the juvenile justice system, what their motives are, and how their interests and needs can be thoroughly assessed and used to determine future courses of action.
Landmark 5 treats the more mundane yet vital issues of missions, accountability, and momentum, all of which are addressed through recommendations and discussions of mission statements, management principles, policies and procedures, and performance-based measures.
Landmark 6 is arguably the most vital activity in which the teams participate. Based on their learning experiences during training, each team is asked to complete an action plan that will guide activities upon return to their communities. The trainers meet with each team individually to help them refine their plan and assess their future technical assistance needs.
Upon return to their communities, the teams are eligible to apply for followup technical assistance to support their progress in the implementation of their action plan. The diversity of communities represented by the planning teams is reflected in their visions, action plans, and technical assistance requests. The diversity of these components is one of the curriculum's greatest strengths, because it provides ample opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas and exposure to a variety of operating methods.

Previous Contents Next


	Systems Development Curriculum and Training: Developing a Collaborative and Comprehensive Plan To Provide Effective Substance Abuse Services for Juvenile Offenders Cooperation, coordination, and collaboration are the "three C's" that form the basis of this curriculum and the effective interagency relationships it recommends -- common-sense yet difficult tasks that require the active commitment of all personnel and practitioners to plan new initiatives to respond to the decreasing resources and increasing demands placed on human services systems. Two of the Nation's greatest causes of concern over the past two decades have been the increase in adolescent substance abuse and the rising juvenile crime rate. The causes of adolescent substance abuse and juvenile delinquency are many and varied, but the two are inextricably linked. The systems development curriculum focuses on developing effective interagency coordination and collaborative responses to these behaviors in the hope that scarce resources can be more effectively used to serve the growing number of substance-involved delinquent youth. The primary goal is to assist jurisdictions through a collaborative planning process that will allow them to develop, implement, and refine their own comprehensive strategies, recognizing that there are no right answers, only effective ones that must be modified to fit the needs of individual communities. Each participating jurisdiction determines the scope and type of services it should plan and provide. During the training seminar, 5- to 10-person jurisdictional planning teams comprising representatives of juvenile justice, substance abuse services, and other interested stakeholders are introduced to a training map with various "landmarks" to guide their learning experience and tasks upon their return to their communities (see figure at bottom of page 7). Landmark 1 is the jumping off point, where participants discuss what they expect and how the process ahead may help meet them. To ensure that each participant has basic knowledge of the primary systems involved in the planning effort, the group discusses the history and present demands of the juvenile justice and substance abuse service systems. Because all politics (and seminars) are local, landmark 2 is a discussion of how these systems operate in their individual jurisdictions and how they may be improved through coalition development and other strategies. Participants are guided through a community mapping process that is interactive as well as informative, and the results are used to guide team responses to future exercises and planning processes. Developed in conjunction with the project's advisory panel, landmark 3 is the conceptual model -- akin to a market analysis -- that requires each team to analyze their community's resources and desires before designing a product they believe will meet their future needs. Whereas landmark 1 is concrete in nature and landmarks 2 and 3 require participants to envision and brainstorm a community's possibilities, landmarks 4, 5, and 6 progressively return the trainee teams to the concrete by asking them to examine demands made upon them and their agencies and realistic procedures to use upon returning to their communities. Landmark 4 asks the teams to review who the stakeholders are in the issue of providing comprehensive services to substance-involved youth in the juvenile justice system, what their motives are, and how their interests and needs can be thoroughly assessed and used to determine future courses of action. Landmark 5 treats the more mundane yet vital issues of missions, accountability, and momentum, all of which are addressed through recommendations and discussions of mission statements, management principles, policies and procedures, and performance-based measures. Landmark 6 is arguably the most vital activity in which the teams participate. Based on their learning experiences during training, each team is asked to complete an action plan that will guide activities upon return to their communities. The trainers meet with each team individually to help them refine their plan and assess their future technical assistance needs. Upon return to their communities, the teams are eligible to apply for followup technical assistance to support their progress in the implementation of their action plan. The diversity of communities represented by the planning teams is reflected in their visions, action plans, and technical assistance requests. The diversity of these components is one of the curriculum's greatest strengths, because it provides ample opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas and exposure to a variety of operating methods.