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Supporting Youth In Transition to Adulthood: Lessons Learned from Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice

NCJ Number
238457
Author(s)
David Altschuler; Gary Stangler; Kent Berkley; Leonard Burton
Date Published
April 2009
Length
58 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses approaches for assisting crossover youth as they move out of the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and back in to society and adulthood.
Abstract
Realizing that crossover youth have special needs and complex problems, this report discusses various approaches for assisting these youth as they move out of both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and back in to society and on in to adulthood. The authors note that today's young adults often require additional support in order to attain the educational and vocational skills, and emotional maturity needed to succeed in a global economy, and that while families and educational institutions have changed in order to provide this support, the child welfare and juvenile justice agencies still have a long way to go. This paper has three primary goals. The first goal is to outline potential strategies, programs, and resources that allow policymakers and juvenile justice and child welfare professionals to work collaboratively across systems to address the special and complex needs of crossover youth. The second goal of the paper is use the accomplishments already seen in the child welfare field in assisting the transition of crossover youth and apply these accomplishments to the field of juvenile justice. The third goal of the report is to identify the developments and promising approaches made in the field of juvenile justice to assist the transition of crossover youth and apply these improvements to the child welfare field. In doing so, the authors aim to show each system how to work together to provide the necessary assistance to crossover youth who may be transitioning from either or both systems back in to society and in to adulthood. References