The 2005 Court Coordination Program Orientation Training Meeting
Click here for April 26–27 Meeting Materials

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is pleased to announce a kickoff meeting for the Court Coordination Program (CCP). The meeting will be held on April 26-27 at the Wardman Marriott in Washington, DC.

What is the Court Coordination Program?

The concept for the Court Coordination Program was initiated by OJJDP Administrator J. Robert Flores and discussed with a group of juvenile court judges and administrators at the March 2004 meeting of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) in Las Vegas, Nev., and again at the July 2004 NCJFCJ meeting in Portland, Ore. The intent and purpose of this pilot project is to see if leveraging the authority of juvenile and family courts can facilitate the coordination of services for youths who require the attention of several agencies.

CCP will enable the court to coordinate with other community, youth-serving agencies on particularly problematic cases by employing a court coordinator, who will report directly to the juvenile court judge. This court coordinator will seek to make complex juvenile court cases a priority for local service providers (including public and private community mental health, social services, education, and health agencies). Courts involved in the program will also receive training and technical assistance designed to help them assume a leadership role in their local service delivery systems. The project as a whole will allow OJJDP to assess the value of a court-coordination approach as an alternative to increasing specialization in juvenile court mandates.

Who will be participating in the program?

Eight different juvenile and family courts will be piloting the CCP initiative in 2005. The focus of the program is juvenile court cases, including delinquency, abuse, neglect and status offenders. Its intent is to deal with cases that require intensive and specialized care where the child needs service from one or more agencies in addition to the juvenile court. The program should deal with such cases as:

•  Sex offenders
•  Mentally ill youth
•  Drug cases
•  Functionally disabled
•  Those needing residential care
•  “Deep-end” youth
•  Abuse, neglect and custody cases

What will be covered at the Court Coordination Program (CCP) Orientation Training Meeting?

This meeting will provide training and technical assistance (T&TA) on the following topics:

· How to put a CCP together in your community
· The role of the judge in leveraging services
· Developing linkages between the court and community services
· The role of the coordinator
· Data collection requirements
· Evaluation and reporting requirements
· Reviewing federal resources available to the sites
· Identifying effective programs with OJJDP's Model Programs Guide Database
· Proposal requirements for funded (Tier 1) and unfunded (Tier 2) sites
· Identifying target populations
· Availability of T&TA

Who is invited?

This is a very important meeting for all sites that have been selected to participate in the Court Coordination Program. Teams must consist, at a minimum, of the judge, the prospective site coordinator or designee, a representative from the U.S. Attorney's Office, and a representative of the Weed and Seed site. If you wish to invite another key partner(s) whom you feel will enhance the success of the project, we encourage you to do so. For example, you may wish to invite someone else from local government (e.g., the mayor or county commissioner's office) with influence over funding decisions and the ability to leverage local resources.

Teams from the following jurisdictions are invited to attend:

Tier 1 :
Albany, NY Family Court
New Orleans, LA Orleans Parish Juvenile Court
Miami-Dade, FL 11th Judicial Circuit Court
Portland, OR/Multnomah County 4th Circuit Court

Tier 2:
Buffalo, NY Erie County Family Court
Santa Clara, CA County Superior Court
Marion County, IN Superior Court Juvenile Division
Cleveland, OH Cuyahoga County Juvenile Courts

How do I register?  

Registration information has already been mailed out to participating sites.

How do I make my travel arrangements (non-Federal participants)?

When you receive your registration information and forms, you will also receive contact information for our travel agent who will assist you in making your arrangements.

For questions on registration and travel, contact Sharneen Smiley at DSG at (301) 951-0056 or ssmiley@dsgonline.com

What are some additional resources for launching my CCP?

Invitees to the CCP training meeting are encouraged to look at SAMHSA's recent solicitation for Cooperative Agreements for the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program.

See http://www.samhsa.gov/grants/2005/nofa/sm05010rfa_cmhi.aspx for further information.

Whom do I contact for further information about the meeting?

For general questions, please contact the OJJDP project team:

Bob Samuels, Strategic Community Development Officer, (202) 307-1357 or bob.samuels@usdoj.gov .

Cecilia Duquela-Fuentes, Program Manager, (202) 514-9372 or cecilia.duquela@usdoj.gov .

Karen Stern, Evaluation and HHS/Mental Health Coordination, (202) 514-9395 or Karen.stern@usdoj.gov .

Wandra Simmons, Targeted Community Action Planning Coordinator, (202) 514-8932 or wandra.simmons@usdoj.gov .  

Glenn Kamber, Development Services Group, Inc. Court Coordination Program Director, gkamber@dsgonline.com