Project REENTRY: Serving Youth Offenders through Interagency Collaboration

1
Project REENTRYServing Youth Offenders through
Interagency Collaboration

• A project of the Ohio Department of Job and
  Family Services and the Ohio Department of Youth
  Services

2
The Challenge

• In SFY 04, Ohio had an average daily population
  in state juvenile facilities of 1,778 youth and
  an average daily parole population of 1,713.
• Most juvenile offenders who are released from
  Dept. of Youth Services institutions return to
  Ohios four most populous counties.
• These youth face multiple barriers to making
  successful transitions to work, family, and
  community roles.

3
The Need

• The Bureau of Parole provides case management and
  some treatment-focused programming, but there is
  a need for a broader network of transitional
  services for youthful offenders and their
  families.

4
One Solution Project REENTRY

• The Ohio Department of Job and Family Service
  (ODJFS), the Ohio Department of Youth Services
  (ODYS), and local Workforce Investment Boards
  formed a partnership to address this need.
• Project REENTRY addresses the challenges and
  needs of youth transitioning back to their
  communities from state juvenile correction
  facilities.

5
Project REENTY Goals

• Participating youth will
• Enter employment and be retained in employment
• Stay in school or enter training/post-secondary
  education
• Develop appropriate family, peer, and/or adult
  mentor relationships
• Parent effectively/prevent unwanted pregnancies
• Move out of poverty

6
Key Features

• Strong employment and training focus
• Connections among public agencies, community and
  faith-based organizations to provide supportive
  services to youth
• Strong adult mentorship component
• Local flexibility in program design

7
Funding for Project REENTRY

• Participating areas voluntarily deobligated a
  portion of WIA youth funds to ODJFS.
• TANF funds were provided to these areas to
  provide additional services for youth.
• Exchanged WIA funds were provided to DYS to
  contract for reentry services in the county that
  contributed the funds.

8
Participating Counties and Vendors

• Cuyahoga (Cleveland) Cuyahoga Justice Center
• Franklin (Columbus) Alvis House, Inc.
• Hamilton (Cincinnati) Lighthouse Youth Services,
  Inc.
• Stark (Canton) Stark County Family Court

9
Evaluation

• Independent evaluation will be provided by the
  University of Cincinnati.
• Evaluation will measure many outcomes including
  how youth would perform if WIA performance
  standards and the 10 youth elements were applied
  to this group.
• Additional data collected includes recidivism
  utilization of supportive services public,
  community, and faith-based organizations and
  evidenced-based unit cost needed to provide
  effective services for hard-to-serve youth.

10
Next Steps

• Pilot will be evaluated on an on-going basis and
  recommendations will be provided late spring to
  determine next steps and what may be needed
  outside of the employment and training
  infrastructure to facilitate success for these
  at-risk youth.