The Practitioner-Researcher Partnership Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents Demonstration Grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention was awarded to the Mid Atlantic Network of Youth and Family Services and the University of Massachusetts Boston.
The Second Chance Act – Strengthening Relationships Between Young Fathers and Their Children: A Reentry Mentoring Project awarded to Friends of Island Academy, NY; Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota; Connection Training Services, PA; Fathers Support center St. Louis, MO and the The RIDGE Project, Inc. OH.
Director of the Bureau of Prisons, Charles Samuels, announced the creation of a new Reentry Resources Division at DOJ.
Pamela Hyde, Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration at HHS announced the release of SAMHSA’s “Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach.” https://store.samhsa.gov/product/SMA14-4884 This paper lays out SAMSHA’s framework for trauma and how an organization, system, service sector can become trauma-informed. It integrates the perspectives or researchers, practitioners, and people with lived experience of trauma. It includes a definition of trauma (“The Three Es”), a definition of a trauma-informed approach (“The Four Rs”), 6 key principles, and 10 implementation domains. The paper also includes a matrix of sample questions, across implementation domains and key principles, to help agencies being to think about implementing a trauma-informed approach. SAMHSA encourages individuals and organizations, across service-sectors and systems, to examine how an understanding of trauma and implementation of a trauma-informed approach will benefit all stakeholders.
The DOJ- HHS Partnership for new resources for children of incarcerated parents on FindYouthInfo.gov. Website is found at https://www.findyouthinfo.gov/youth-topics/children-of-incarcerated-parents This webpage on FindYouthInfo.gov disseminates federal resources and information to caregivers and service providers working with children of incarcerated parents. This website first went live after the children of incarcerated parents champions of change event June 2013. In 2014 and 2015, through a partnership with OJJDP, the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs has an opportunity to continue developing this work. We will be gathering information from young people and families through listening sessions, developing and disseminating materials that highlight data, family experiences, and innovative approaches to serving COIP including the following:
Listening sessions with youth and other stakeholders: Listening sessions will be facilitated with youth and other stakeholders. The listening sessions would help illustrate the experiences of youth affected by incarceration for the COIP Interagency Working Group and federal agencies working with this population and inform the type of content that should be posted on the COIP webpage.
Awareness Raising and Improving Practice: Family Perspectives and Service-delivery Innovations: This range of activities would focus on highlighting both family experiences and innovative approaches to working with COIP.
Marketing: This range of activities would help target key end-users and ensure populations of interest, including youth and service providers, can access useful information on the site. These activities will include search engine optimization, targeted newsletters/briefs, social media strategies, email group lists, and other promotional materials.
