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Commissioner Peter Forbes |
As we enter 2020 our agency is very active and engaged in a range of activities that support safety for youth and staff, promote positive youth outcomes and contribute to community safety.
In order for us to continue to make progress, we need everyone "rowing in the same direction". We're working through a strategic planning process that allows for broad input and will result in a road map for DYS for next three years. In this news- letter edition you will receive updates on Positive Youth Development (PYD), Family Engagement, Youth Voice, JDAI and other areas of operation.
PYD is a guiding construct recognized nationally and in the research that positions youth and families as assets to be developed and not problems to be fixed. PYD was identified as a priority area of focus in our most recent strategic plan and a great deal of effort has gone into weaving this concept into our daily work with young people. Nancy Carter has been a big Champion and has worked with the regions to generate teams that have really energized this work.
We've made a commitment to be more intentional in our work with families. There is no doubt that we will get further along in the rehabilitative process when we have the support of families. We have to take the time to listen, treat families with respect and incorporate their input into all planning for DYS involved youth.
Additionally, in order for us to be effective with youth we have to establish a rapport and listen to what they want to work on. In this edition there is a strong letter from a young woman who went through the DYS system and has since graduated from college and landed a job in the field of juvenile justice. She is an example of an "alumni" group that we have been reaching out to in order to inform our practice.
The Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI) is also highlighted in this newsletter. JDAI is a national program plan supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and locally headed up by Thula Sibanda. JDAI has a set of core strategies that provide guidance to jurisdictions regarding the use of detention, facility standards, strategies to keep lower risk youth in the community, a focus on racial disproportionality in our detention caseload and other important areas of work related to youth who enter the detention system.
Thank you for what you do every day. I look forward to seeing you in the field.
Sincerely,
Peter Forbes
DYS Commissioner
P.S.
Please
email me
your comments and suggestions!
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March 20
- Southeast Region Years of Service Event
March 26
- Legislative Arts Rally
April 27 - Western Region Years of Service Event
May 13
- DYS Youth Arts Showcase
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This fall, DYS celebrated the work and dedication of our agency's Positive Youth Development (PYD) Champions.
The Department of Youth Services (DYS) believes in strategies that support PYD. We have invested resources to complement the work and dedication of our PYD Champions. The PYD Champions are comprised of members of the residential and community continuum from all five regions; they have worked and collaborated together to grow professionally and to share their strengths. They support the agency's vision of a workforce who have the knowledge and skills to help young people become valued, productive members of their communities.
DYS is grateful for the collaborative work with our partners from Health Resources in Action (HRiA) and Commonwealth Corporation. DYS acknowledges the following individuals for their continuous support of the mission and vision of the Department of Youth Services.
Nancy Carter - DYS, Brianna Wales and Charline Alexandre - Joseph - Commonwealth Corporation as Co-Chairs of the PYD Work
Peter Forbes - DYS Commissioner and Advocate for Positive Youth Outcomes
Mo Barbosa, PYD Consultant & HRiA
The PYD 2.1 Committee Members for the Agency Strategic Plan
DYS' Positive Youth Development Champions
Central Region PYD Champions
Metro Region PYD Champions
Tyrone Mungo Geno Desrosiers
Lorretta Iwanoski Meghan McDermott
Northeast Region PYD Champions
Southest Region PYD Champions
Western Region PYD Champions
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Family Engagement in DYS - What can I do?
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Research
shows that when families are meaningfully and continuously engaged in their child's learning and development, they can positively impact their health, development, academic, and well-being outcomes into adulthood. (
Weiss, Lopez, & Caspe, 2016,
2
Henderson & Mapp, 2002)
The Annie E. Casey Foundation states, "Family Engagement is not a single  policy or practice or program".
Working in the Department of Youth Services, we engage with the youth on a daily basis and are able to see the the interactions between our youth, staff and their families. DYS staff takes pride in sharing best practices and guidelines that are implemented by staff members across our 5 regions to make family engagement that much better.
Regional Family Engagement Practices:
- Family events at different community and regional locations
- Asking families what times work for them for DYS meetings
- Providing transportation to families to attend meetings
- Offer coffee hours for families to attend with youth
- Have a cultural event at the residential location in the evening
- Seek input from the family advisory council at our monthly meetings
- Offer counseling for families and youth
- Encourage parent voice at assessment
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Data Matters
The Bridging the Opportunity Gap initiative is based on a positive youth development model that is asset-based, culturally responsive, and delivered by personnel with experience in operating youth employability programs.
During fiscal year 2019, a total of 227 youth participated in BOG programming. Out of the 227 youth, 126 carried over from FY 2018 and 101 new youth enrolled during FY 2019.
Youth participated in a wide variety of career readiness training and field experiences as they worked through the tiers. Youth had the opportunity to explore multiple work experiences with a total of 166 internship placements for 122 unique youth, demonstrating that youth are gaining more exploration opportunities as a result of the tiered approach.
In FY19, 50 youth (22%) market employment, up 10% from FY 2018.
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Catching up with the Celtics in the community
On Wednesday January 29, 2020 the Randolph District Office had the opportunity to invite two youth to attend "The Athletes Forum with the Celtics" at the Bethel AME Church located in Roslindale.
This was a community event for youth hosted by the Pastors of the Church, Pastor Ray Hammond and Pastor Gloria White Hammond, as well as Reverend Robert Gray who also happens to be the Chaplin of the Boston Celtics. The youth were extremely excited and grateful for the opportunity to hear Kemba Walker, Grant Williams and Coach Jerome Allen speak in a panel discussion which included questions on overcoming adversity, being able to remove yourself from peer groups that aren't going in the same direction that you are, how to balance school and sports, women in sports, how they contribute positively to a team, and who they think is a better all around player Kemba or Kyrie.
The evening ended with both of our youth being able to obtain autographs as well as fist bumps from Kemba Walker and both youth discussing the event enthusiastically with staff on their rides home. This opportunity provided these young men with memories that will last them a lifetime.
Written by Jennifer Resil
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Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI) Update
Purpose:
JDAI demonstrates that jurisdictions can establish more effective and efficient systems to accomplish the purposes of juvenile detention
Goals:
- Improve cross system collaboration at every decision point within youth serving systems in order to meet the unique needs of each youth and family.
- Ensuring equitable outcomes in youth serving systems, by deliberately targeting reform efforts to youth of color
- Guarantee equitable access and appropriate pro-social opportunities that promote positive youth development.
- Assure fidelity to the JDAI 8 Core Strategies and work in partnership with youth, family, and community in all reform efforts
Strategies:
- Collaboration
- Accurate use of data to drive decision making
- Objective screening and decision making
- Alternatives to detention
- Case pJDArocessing reforms
- Focus on Special Populations
- Increase racial and ethnic equity
- Improve conditions of confinement
Results:
- Nearly 12 years of detention reform efforts have reduced detention admissions by 57%.
- Counties have spearheaded pilot projects to address admissions within Special Populations
- Grant funding has been disseminated to counties for diversion projects
- The use of detention has fallen significantly faster in the last ten years (2006-2016) than the filings for delinquency charges, 58% to 30% respectively
JDAI Grants:
Health Law Advocates, Inc
This JDAI Grant will fund the expansion of Health Law Advocates, Inc.'s Mental Health Advocacy Program for Kids (MHAP for Kids) to Holyoke, providing free legal assistance to help youth in low-income families overcome obstacles to securing mental health services.
This new service for Hampden County will be offered in partnership with Enlace de Familias through its Family Resource Center on Main Street in Holyoke.
MHAP for Kids currently serves youth in Bristol, Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk counties.
More Than Words, Inc
This initiative led by More Than Words, Inc. strives to increase diversion eligibility to a larger number of offenses in an effort to reduce the number of youth entering detention;
The project will also support coordination for housing referrals, mental health, job training, education, and additional services critical to support young adults and prevent further offenses.
Another goal of this collaborative project is to increase the capacity and training for new staff on key assessment tools in the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office to divert a higher volume of young adults.
Trinity Boston Foundation
This JDAI Grant will fund the development of a Youth Committee (comprised of Peer Mentorship, Youth Committee Led Presentations, Youth-led Survey and Focus Groups of Detained Youth and Youth Training and Education) within Suffolk's JDAI structure which will:
- Amplify youth voice and engagement, align with national JDAI best practices and promote racial equity and inclusion.
- Establish a curriculum to train youth leaders that can be replicated in other regions.
Throughout the project's funding cycle the grantee will collect evaluation data and codify an evaluation strategy, which will be shared locally and nationally.
Youth Advocacy Foundation
This JDAI grant will facilitate the implementation of the Identity Project Curriculum at the Northeast Regional Youth Services Center in Middleton, Massachusetts which will lead to:
- a heightened focus on ensuring that youth have a voice which is heard throughout the juvenile justice system, guaranteeing that youth are able to exercise self-determination within the juvenile justice system, and ensuring that juvenile justice stakeholders see youth as contributors
- a particular focus on positive youth development with a goal of reducing ethnic and racial disparities
The overarching goal is to interrupt implicit racial and ethnic bias by providing opportunities to meet with youth in positive, pro-social environments, and to provide positive messaging for both court personnel and youth regarding the people involved in systems
Greater Lowell
Children's
Fund Inc
This JDAI funded initiative will create a secure Virtual Mentor Application (App) that dually-involved and at-risk court-involved youth can access 24/7 from their cellphones, tablets, or other devices with online accessibility.
The App will consist of shortcuts intended to empower and engage dually-involved and at-risk youth by:
- Increasing their access to their existing professional supports (social workers, attorneys, etc.)
- Providing virtual support in-between more formal in-person check-ins with those professionals utilizing a method almost all adolescents are tied to: their cellphones.
- Aggregating already existing freeware to simplify youth's ability to stay connected to their community
- Increasing compliance with court and positive youth development activities and appointments. For example, the Virtual Mentor App could provide:
- Every youth with free access to an integrated personal digital calendar with pre-set alerts for curfews, court dates, or clinical appointments which the youth, an attorney, a family member or other collateral can input or update;
- An email address with which they can communicate with their support team;
- Secure document storage for electronic medical, school, and personal record access (such as birth certificate, social security card, etc.) for dually-involved youth;
- Joint creation of virtual PYD plan with task assignment and completion update capability;
- Virtual call coaching;
- Texting notifications to interface with their professional supports and their families for check-ins and additional support.
New England Community Services, Inc
This JDAI grant will support a collaboration between the Bristol County JDAI committee and New England Community Services to initiate a Rapid Response program resulting in the provision of wraparound model services for detained youth and their family. Those wraparound services will include:
- Having regular contact with the client's service providers, including the DCF Social Worker, DYS Program Manager, and the youth's attorney to assist in identifying an appropriate permanent placement.
- Obstacles to placement will be addressed as they arise.
- The expectation that initial contact with each client will occur within 48 hours of referral. With this model youth's needs will be met with rapidity while in detention;
- Once released the chance of reoffending will decrease as NECS has a proven track record of helping clients improve self -esteem, resiliency, and outlook towards life.
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JDAI Awards Breakfast
 Thank you to everyone who came in support of all the 2019 awardees! A big thank you to the Zara Cisco Brough (ZCB) facility and gracious staff for hosting this event, and to the girls at ZCB who made the beautiful centerpieces.
CONGRATULATIONS 2019 AWARD RECIPIENTS!
Jane E. Tewksbury Leadership Award:
Catherine Coughlin
State Bail Administrator
Promising Practice Award:
Suffolk County Diversion
District Attorney's Office
Promising Practice Award:
Missing & Absent Youth Regional Pilot Program-DCF
Ignacio Gandarilla, Jody Piccone, Tanya
Tenacious Initiative Award:
Bristol -
Candice Gabrey
Essex -
Kimberly Lawrence
Hampden -
Raquel Cabrera
Middlesex -
Jacqueline Mosselle
Suffolk -
Nate Harris
Worcester -
Kanchana Fernando
Standing Ovation Award:
Delano Bailey, DDAP
Cris & Deb Freitas, Defense Attorneys former CPCS
Dalene Basden, PPAL
Steven McKeown, Probation
Doreen Bell, Community Health Link
Jonathan Mobley, Youth Move/PPAL
Jamie Bennett, CPCS
Racism Links to Trauma & Resilience Team Trainings, UMASS
Yvette Cheeks, Lowell High School
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Jaclyn Cirinna - "Here's Why It's So Important to Create Opportunities for Youth Voices to Be Heard"
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Speaking as a formerly incarcerated youth, my passion is to educate others on the importance of youth voice. We know it is essential to move juvenile justice reform forward, but we need to start implementing it in every sense of the word. A little youth voice here and a little youth voice there is not going to solve systemic errors, nor will it solve the problems societal pressures present for those who are system involved. These problems range from negative stigmas to the expectations of youths to respond positively in toxic environments.
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Jaclyn Cirinna
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I have been fortunate enough to have been given several opportunities to have my voice heard at the tables of a state agency, major foundation and national juvenile justice nonprofit. Not only is this important to me, but it is a step forward in the movement of juvenile justice reform to have opportunities for youth available. Not only is my voice valued throughout these spaces, it is necessary for this work to hear what young people need, from the young people. Youth engagement is necessary and who else better to tell you how and why than the young people who are waiting to be engaged.
It means the world to me to know that I have a team of people who wanted me to succeed, and their confidence in me and support led me to believe I will succeed. I am writing this in order to inspire more people to create opportunities for young people, specifically those with system involvement.
The opportunity that kick-started my career was working as a
Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) consultant. I provided input and feedback at agency meetings and participated in speaking engagements and panels. DYS staff trusted me and gave me every opportunity they knew would let my voice be heard and made sure nothing could prevent me from participating...
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11th Annual Statewide Community Services Professional Development Day
 On Friday November 1st 2019, roughly 200 field-based, direct care and management state and provider staff gathered for the 11th Annual Statewide Community Services Professional Development Day.
Commissioner Peter Forbes welcomed the attendees with an address that emphasized the importance of fairness in the context of accountability, that the youth we work with are capable of change and that change happens in the context of relationships. Further, Commissioner Forbes reminded the group that what they do matters and has a significant impact on outcomes for the youth served by DYS.
Marquis Taylor - Co-founder and President, Coaching4Change - provided the plenary address. Marquis described the work of his organization and his own lived experience, illustrating that "Experience Drives Learning".
Ivy Sweeting and Charline Alexandre-Joseph of Commonwealth Corporation provided a "quick hit" on the Employer Outreach work happening in the Metro Region and funded through the Department's Second Chance Act grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
In the afternoon, John Chet Kochinskas and Danielle Spitz from the DYS Training Center brought the group back with a lively energizer. Katryn Haley-Little from JRI then provided a 3-hour workshop to the group around "The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: Understanding and Responding to Victims".
Thanks to all the attendees and those who assisted in making this day possible! We appreciate the hard work you're doing every day. Until next year!
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Eating Healthy - Basic Veggie Soup
Servings:
8 servings
Prep Time:
5
minutes
Cook Time:
40
minutes
Total Time:
55
minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion (1 medium)
- 2 cups peeled and chopped carrots (about 5)
- 1 1/4 cups chopped celery (about 3)
- 4 cloves garlic , minced
- 4 (14.5 oz) cans low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
- 2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes (undrained)
- 3 cups peeled and 1/2-inch thick diced potatoes (from about 3 medium)
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups chopped frozen or fresh green beans
- 1 1/4 cups frozen or fresh corn
- 1 cup frozen or fresh peas
Instructions
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Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
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Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute 4 minutes then add garlic and saute 30 seconds longer.
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Add in broth tomatoes, potatoes, parsley, bay leaves, thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste*.
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Bring to a boil, then add green beans.
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Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until potatoes are almost fully tender, about 20 - 30 minutes.
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Add corn and peas and cook 5 minutes longer. Serve warm.
From Cooking Classy
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SAVE THE DATE - DYS ANNUAL ART SHOWCASE
Make sure to mark your calendars on Wednesday May 13th for the 8th Annual DYS Art Showcase!
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Don't forget to check The Pulse:
- Be a Pulse Champion: Use Pulse and earn recognition
- See the winners in the Holiday Decorating Contest
- Complete your profile (get endorsed for your skills)
- Links to JJEMS, Jasper, PACE, SSTA & more
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