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Wisconsin Juvenile Justice Network

Friday, May 19, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Dane County Neighborhood Intervention Program

721 Oxford Avenue, Room 1301

Eau Claire, WI

Meeting Minutes

Attendance

☒ / Andre Johnson, Dane by phone / ☒ / Phil Stegemann for Mandy Bisek, La Crosse
☐ / Debra Vieaux, Dane / ☐ / Stacy Ledvina, Manitowoc
☐ / Rhonda Voigt, Dane / ☐ / Becky Bogen-Marek, Marathon
☒ / John Bauman, Dane Co Juvenile Court Program / ☐ / Mark Mertens, Milwaukee
☐ / Wendy Henderson, DCF / ☐ / Kelly Pethke, Milwaukee
☒ / Bryn Martyna, DCF / ☐ / Brian McBride, Milwaukee
☐ / Ragen Shapiro, DCF / ☐ / Cindy Ebsen, MJTC
☒ / Shelby McCulley, DJC by phone / ☒ / Chad Knutson, Polk
☒ / Michelle Buehl, DJC / ☐ / Jodi Peterson, Portage
☒ / Nina Emerson, DOJ / ☐ / Lance Horozewski, Rock
☐ / Reisha Mitchell, DOJ / ☒ / Jeremy Erdmann, Shawano
☐ / Linda Schmitz, DOJ / ☐ / Heather Yaeger, WAFCA (LSS)
☐ / Vacant, DPI / ☒ / Fred Garcia, Waukesha by phone
☒ / Carol Pulkrabek, Eau Claire / ☒ / Shannon Kelly, Waupaca
☒ / Rob Fadness, Eau Claire / ☒ / Cindy Waller, WJCIA by phone
☐ / Jessie Godek, Jefferson / ☐ /
Other: Tom Wirth & Hannah Keller, Eau Claire
Guest Speaker:
  1. Introductions, welcome new members and brief updates
  2. Nina began the meeting by acknowledging the newest members: Jeremy Erdmann, Shawano County, Shannon Kelly, Waupaca County & John Bauman, Dane County Juvenile Court Program
  • Nina Emerson: By letter dated August 23, 2016, OJJDP closed its 2015 Audit of DOJ having concluded that DOJ satisfied the 13 recommendations. However, the issue of the frozen Title II Formula Grant funds was referred to the Office of Justice Program’s Office of General Counsel (OJP).

The OJP and the DOJ entered into negotiations to reach a settlement agreement concerning the Title II Formula Grant funds. The settlement agreement is signed March 17, 2017, and provides that OJP will release a sufficient amount of funds to allow DOJ to reimburse its subgrantees who were awarded grants out of the FY 2013-2015 Formula Grants. Further, OJP will terminate and deobligate the remaining Title II Formula funds previously awarded to the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance and DOJ.

The deobligated funds will be reobligated based on a competitive fund announcement issued by OJJDP to eligible units of local government and non-profits. The fund announcement will be for approximately $1.7 million. It will be issued later this summer with a start date of October 1, 2017.

  • Michelle Buehl: In April, DJC completed training for our field agents on Community Supervision. We have a new case management Philosophy that focuses on the Four Core Competencies throughout three phases. Many supports have been put into place as agents move forward with this new philosophy. As of July 1st, Milwaukee will be providing aftercare for their youth, instead of DJC. To plan for this, DJC has made adjustments to which agents are providing after for which counties.
  • Carol Pulkrabek: Eau Claire County is moving forward with their OE process. The Juvenile Justice Collaborative Committee has created 2 workgroups. One will research on being trauma informed, to allow for necessary changes in the court process. The other is looking at how the county is working with the school system. Meetings have already taken place with the school system and changes have been made. There has been more collaboration and resource sharing as a result. The WCHSA CYA PAC created a Corrections Workgroup that is looking at what youth are currently placed in corrections, RCCs and DT and which youth should be placed in these settings. A data subgroup is collecting data to review as well.
  • Phil Stegemann: They are finding success with their system of care program in diverting youth from entering the system. They are moving forward with the JDAI initiative.
  • Jeremy Erdmann: The youth after school mentoring program has been successful. This six week program provides groups for both males and females, ages 12-15, and has a focus on sexting/bullying. Recidivism numbers for those that attend these groups are down.
  • WJCIA: Annual conference is September 27-29 at the Kalahari. Presenters include Mark Carey, Mark McGowan and the Youth Panel. Lots of hands-on breakout sessions will be offered.
  • Waupaca: Finding ways to support youth in the community, including hosting community events with youth participation and doing a Youth Sparks training for youth. Great relationships have been created through these community events.
  • DCF: will report out later
  • Rob Fadness: Eau Claire County has partnered with La Crosse County on the JDAI initiative. They are almost a year from when they decided to not shackle youth moving between detention and court, except for certain situations. There have been 2 incidents where youth should have been, but overall it is going well and has become standard practice. Rob suggested it would be worth it for the detention centers to have a discussion on their policies and practices on this topic.
  • Chad Knutson: The county has been challenged with many high needs kids that are violent, but not necessarily to be placed in the JJ system. Many of these youth have cognitive issues and they are working hard to keep them out of detention.
  • Fred Garcia: The Adolescent/Family Division is starting the OE process; looking to improve what they do. Informed the group that the staff that attended the BYS-Youth Conference all thought it was an excellent conference and got a lot of great information from it. They are struggling with limited resources in their county, especially for youth with sexually offending behaviors.
  • Andre Johnson: Save the date for the Youth Subcultures Conference November 10th in Madison at American Family Insurance. Judge Teske will be the key note with about fifteen other breakout sessions – more info to come. They have seen good initial success with expanding their municipal diversion program. Looking to expand to Sun Prairie next. The JJ unit is wrapping up their Connect the Dots process in the next few months. They will share the final report with the group.
  • John Bauman: Agreed with the challenges to place high needs youth. Using a new curriculum on Teen Dating, which will focus on teen violence and sexting. Shelter Care received new future from Oscar Meyer after it closed.

Approve Minutes from November 11, 2016 and February 24, 2017

  • Nina made a motion to approve the November 11, 2016 minutes as written, seconded by Chad Knutson.
  • Nina made a motion to approve the February 24, 2017 minutes as written, seconded by Chad Knutson.
  1. Trauma Informed Care Implementation with Youth Focus
  • Presentation by Shannon Kelly, Waupaca County Health and Human Services
  • Power Point emailed to group
  • Worked hard to create a Trauma Informed Workforce by implementing a lot of different training; including Youth Sparks, Intensive Permanency Training, Youth Leadership Team involvement
  • 9 principles for TIC that Waupaca Co. has vowed to practice:
  • Partner w/clients
  • Be welcoming
  • Respect human rights
  • Be strength based
  • Earn trust
  • Offer a helping hand
  • Promote safety
  • Be person centered
  • Share power
  • They revised their Vision/Mission and Values
  • Good working relationship TW CPS and JJ workers
  • Everyone is trained on the ACE Interface; but they chose not to focus on just 10 adverse experiences
  1. WJJN Website and Practice Model Updates

Website & Communications Update:

  • Jim has officially retired, so a number of members have stepped up and are doing a great job:
  • Cindy – article gatekeeper
  • Jessie – posting things on website
  • Nina – tweeter and Facebook page
  • Carol/Hannah – mail chimp
  • Please keep the county/state articles coming. The ideal submission is an article that is already written, or if a newspaper article, summarized by the person submitting the information. However, we’re all very busy and if that’s not possible or feasible, Jessie will do her best to try and get a fully written article posted in a reasonable amount of time. News page and highlighted some of the more recent posts provided by various members.
  • Our “host” – Bluehost – account has been paid thru June 25, 2018 BUT someone will have to be designated and “come on board” as the new “owner” of the site – it is currently me/WCCF but we need someone to step up to do that - this is a fairly complicated process; once changed, the “next” thing to come up will really be the renewal in 2018…. Cost $12.99/month paid by WCCF working to send an email out via mail chimp to notify those on the email list of news updates.
  • Our domain names (we have two to hang onto wisjjn.org and wisjjn.net) – are paid thru approx. mid-June of 2019 – cost approx. $70 for two years total – paid by WCCF.
  • Anyone who would like to join the website committee will be welcomed with open arms. We are looking for someone to help post submissions. Jim was truly instrumental in all of this and his dedication and computer skills will be greatly missed.
  • The WJJN Communications Guideline was presented in draft form to the group. Carol made amotion to adopt it and John seconded it.

Practice Model Update:

  • No updates - will plan to meet via phone to discuss next steps before the next WJJN Meeting in August.
  • Connect the Dots is a good starting point for applying the practice model.
  1. DCF, Bureau of Youth Services Updates, Bryn Martyna
  • The Community Intervention Program memo went out recently detailing the budget/plan requirements and due date. Contact Ragen Shapiro with any questions.
  • The Prevention and Division Policy Coordinator position has been posted; applications due May 21st.
  • Workgroups update:
  • Assessment – meeting today to review all assessment tools currently being used in the state (minus COMPAS), plus a few others of interest. A national expert is presenting at this meeting on racial disparities with these tools. The committee will make a recommendation to DCF by July, not sure when DCF will then announce decision. Looks good for state resources to help fund and support the roll-out. More to come on details of implementation as decisions are made. DCF is committed to county input along the way.
  • Intake Worker Training –Workgroup will start second half of this, as listening sessions were held earlier in the year with lots of feedback provided. Currently, the administrative rule dictates the content that needs to be covered.
  • Data – There is a two phase process for this workgroup - first, there will be three meetings to discuss DCF added limited data inputs to WISACWIS, then there will be discussion about long term planning for data collection. The group offered suggestions on this process to mirror the process that was done for creating the Juvenile Justice Model, since that format worked well. Suggestions on people/agencies to include in the workgroup were – legal counsel, DPI, DHS, and detention staff. John, Rob and Phil all volunteered to be a part of this workgroup/discussion.
  • DCF will start to disseminate issue briefs; the first one will be accountability and use WI data from DOJ on detention use.
  • Youth Leaderships Teams are going well. Eight youth were on the youth panel for conference and did a fantastic job.
  • Bryn passed around both the Youth Leadership Team report and Youth Leadership Team Youth Panel – Audience Responses. She will email both to this group.
  • Bryn has a PowerPoint she created on the Youth Leadership Teams that she can share if there is interest.
  • Next steps – The Youth Advisory Council (YAC) is scheduled to present at three more conferences this year. Some youth may be moved up to a more leadership role. The format of the YAC can provide a nice model for counties to be youth engaged and provide more support within their counties for youth.
  1. Work Planning for 2017, continued:

Membership update and outreach:

  • Added several new members: Jeremy Erdmann, Shawano County, Shannon Kelly, Waupaca County & John Bauman, Dane County Juvenile Court Program.
  • Nina will continue to reach out to Oneida County, Michelle will reach out to DPI.
  • Group asked for the membership list that was provided at the last meeting to review membership.
  1. Set Meeting Date/Tentative Locations for 2017 & Wrap-up/Items for Next Meeting

Meeting times 10am – 2pm

  • Friday, August 18 - Waupaca
  • Friday, November 17 – La Crosse

Nina will schedule the next call.

Wendy will facilitate the next meeting.

Our mission is to promote, support and advance effective practice in working with youth and their families who are in or at risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system.