The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute is launching its 2009 Certificate Programs for professionals interested in cross systems efforts for youth in juvenile justice and child welfare. Applications due in March 2009.

Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree, a top advisor to President Obama, will lead a panel on designing strategies to reform juvenile justice, hosted at the ABA Criminal Justice Midyear meeting, February 13, 2009 in Boston.

Funds for youth development and after-school programs as a whole are scarce, and when resources are devoted to training or workforce development, they appear to be included as afterthoughts or minor priorities. The Next Generation Youth Work Coalition undertook a scan of a broad range of federal programs to determine how funds are being used to strengthen, support and retain youth workers. This report also starts a dialogue about increasing policy supports for this workforce that we trust to foster the positive development of our nation's young people.

For many years, teen fathers were either overlooked or blamed for their role in teen pregnancy. However, interest in designing programs to reduce teen pregnancy and to enhance outcomes for babies and children, as well as meet the needs of this vulnerable population, has increased in recent years. A National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse brief authored by Child Trends, Promising Teen Fatherhood Programs: Initial Evidence Lessons from Evidence-Based Research, identifies ten common features of "model" and "promising" programs for teen fathers. Eighteen fatherhood programs were assessed and, of these, one was identified as a "model" program and three as "promising" programs.

New data finds widespread increases in teen birth rates in 2006 in all ethnic groups and many states; states with the lowest teen birth rates showed the least change. Kristen Moore of Child Trends says the new state-by-state data suggest that the downturn in birth rates is over.

National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC) would like to alert you to our newest publication, Expanding Options: State Financing of Education Pathways for Struggling Students and Out-of-School Youth (2008). These profiles of state policy in Indiana, Massachusetts, and North Carolina examine how various education options are accessing public funds in three states. They contextualize the funding of education options within larger secondary education reform and dropout prevention and recovery efforts and provide a close look at state education funding policy in each of the three states. Building on NYEC's previous work, each profile begins with a one-page overview of the secondary education reform context, major dropout prevention and recovery efforts, and funding of education options in the state. Overviews are followed by more in-depth discussion of these areas, as well as detailed information on state funding of public education in each state and examples of how state policy affects programming at the local level. Copies are available at http://nyec.org/pn_tools/prodreg.cfm to download or you may order a free hardcopy.

Today (December 3, 2008), the National Council on Crime and Delinquency released a special report examining how the 110th Congress proposed to address gangs. It compares two bills -- the Gang Abatement and Prevention Act (S. 456 and H.R. 3547) and the Youth PROMISE Act (H.R. 3846) and finds that the Youth PROMISE Act, with its evidenced-based prevention and interventions can do more to help youth "not only stay out of trouble but also have promising futures." The details are available online.

Juvenile crime rates are down, as is enthusiasm for the "get-tough" reforms of the 1990s, including transferring young people to the adult justice system. The latest issue of the Future of Children examines juvenile justice system policy and practices and identifies reforms that are working to reduce juvenile crime -- including those that take into account that adolescents differ from adults and that the justice system alone is ill-equipped to address the needs of the young people involved.

The Dallas Morning News reports that the "Texas Youth Commission remains so dysfunctional a year after sweeping reforms were enacted that the agency should be abolished and its operations merged with the state's juvenile probation authority, a legislative advisory panel said Wednesday." This would create a new combined agency, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

Concerned that young people were increasingly disconnected from the real (read: natural) world, actress and teacher Barbara Sarbin turned a county farm into a hands-on Earth School. Here’s a look at how she did it.