A newsletter for friends of Voices for Children in Nebraska

hild’s VIEW25 years25 years

FALL 2012Vol. 24, NO. 4

Moving Nebraska’s Juvenile Justice System Forward

mitted a violent offense. Bart Lubow of the Annie E. Casey Foundation rec-ommended reducing the use of incar-ceration, which is better for youth and will free up resources for investment in other areas of Juvenile Justice Summit.

2. Decreasing thenumberoffilings inadult court: Nebraska is one of the few states in the nation that frequently processes children and youth through adult court, where few rehabilitative opportunities are available. Nearly half of our court-involved youth are pro-cessed through adult court. Dr. Anne Hobbs, director of the Juvenile Justice Institute, pointed out the links between adult court involvement and higher rates of recidivism.

By Sarah Forrest

On Thursday, December 6, nearly 250 Nebraskans gathered in Lincoln for Voic-es for Children’s first ever Juvenile Justice Summit. Voices for Children has long been known for our Kids Count in Ne-braska Report and our work on children’s issues from health to child welfare. For the past 25 years, we’ve also been work-ing to improve Nebraska’s juvenile justice system, but we haven’t gotten where we need to go. The Juvenile Justice Summit was an opportunity for a range of stake-holders to begin a broader conversation about how Nebraska’s system functions and what changes need to be made so that youth in the juvenile justice system are put on a path towards a bright future.

With the generous support of the Woods Charitable Fund, Boys Town, Douglas County’s Juvenile Detention Al-ternatives Initiative, the Platte Institute, and the Nebraska Juvenile Justice Asso-ciation, participants heard from a number of national and local experts on juvenile justice reform. Just what do we need to be looking at improving in Nebraska? Ex-perts shared some of their thoughts:

1. ReducingNebraska’srelianceon ju- venileincarceration: The United States is alone among developed nations in its frequent use of incarceration, which over time has proved to be costly, ineffec-tive, and dangerous for youth. Nebraska currently incarcerates about 600 youth a year. Almost 3/4 have never com-

3. Creating a system consistent with theneedsofchildren: Youth with in-volvement in Nebraska’s juvenile jus-tice system shared their desire for more consistency, more contact and sup-port from family and other significant adults in their lives, and more voice and choice in juvenile justice cases. Dr. Kayla Pope talked about the need to build trauma-informed juvenile jus-tice systems acknowledging the mental health needs and histories of youth who come through its doors.

4. Bolsteringcommunity-basedservices: Many states rely on incarceration and detention because of a lack of com-munity-based juvenile justice services.

Juvenile Justice Summit closing panel participants discuss moving Nebraska’s juvenile justice system forward. From left to right, Voices for Children’s Sarah Forrest, Bart Lubow from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Marc Levin and Jeanette Moll from the Texas Public Policy Center, Thomas Pristow, Direc-tor of the Division of Children and Family Services, DHHS, Corey Steel, Deputy Administrator of the Office of Probation, and State Senator Brad Ashford.

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2 • Fall 2012

Voices for Children in NebraskaVoices for Children in Nebraska educates and motivates Nebraskans to take action to better the lives of Nebraska’s vulnerable children in the areas of Health, Education, Safety and Economic Stability.

Board of DirectorsDavid A. Hecker, JD, President

Jocelyn Joyce, Vice President

Delores “DJ” Clarke, secretary

Steve Drucker, CPA, treasurer

Keith Allen, PhD

Anne Yu Buettner, MA

Judy Greenwald, MSW

Tim Hron, MA, LIMHP

Kristen Lembke, CPA

Lloyd Meyer

Steve Mitchell

Eric Nelson, MSE

StaffCarolyn D. Rooker, MSW, executiVe director

Rachel Boyer, executiVe assistant & sPecial Projects coordinator

Melissa Breazile, research coordinator

Sarah Forrest, Policy coordinator – child Welfare and juVenile justice

Connie Hacker, accounts Manager

Aubrey Mancuso, Policy coordinator – econoMic stability and health

Courtnay VanDeVelde, Policy associate

Jill Westfall, coMMunications & oPerations coordinator

A member of:

Child’sVIEW Fall 2012 • VOLUME 24, NUMBER 4

is published quarterly by

Voices for Children in Nebraska7521 Main St., Ste. 103, Omaha, NE 68127

coMMunications coordinator: Jill Westfalldesign: Wayne Kobza/Pencil to Press

www.voicesforchildren.com

A Letter From

Carolyn D. Rooker – Executive Director

At Voices for Children in Nebraska, the last few months of the year have been spent preparing for our upcoming legislative ses-sion and the release of our next Kids Count in

Nebraska Report. We’ve been hard at work researching, writing, reading, revising, and put-ting together a com- mon vision for our advocacy in 2013. In other words,

we’ve been getting our “geese” in order for an amazing 2013.

Looking back, 2012 has been a whirlwind year – from a record number of bills passed at the leg-islature to a record setting Spotlight Gala. All of our successes this year have been built on the momen-tum of the last 24 years of work. We get further on our journey toward making Nebraska a bet-ter place for children by work-ing together and building on success after success.

We are taking this momentum into the new year in three ways:

1. We will continue to tell the whole story of Nebraska’s kids to policy makers, community leaders, and advocates through our use of video and infograph-ics. There are interesting projects in the

works for 2013 that you will hear about in the coming months.

2. We are celebrating 20 years of the Kids Count in Nebraska Report with the most radical transformation to date. The new report will make it easier to find the data and information used by professionals and policymakers and will present the information in a more compelling way.

3. We are always growing and expand-ing our circle of advocates. The most important lesson from the geese is the power of community. As we enter 2013, we are flying high on a string of suc- cessful events, like the Juvenile Justice

Summit (page 1), that have better connected and grown the

community of peo- ple working to

change the sys- tems that serve kids.

Thank you for being a part of our flock for Ne-

braska’s kids. With a commu-

nity of advocates and friends like you,

we’re set to fly further and faster than ever before.

NOTE: The illustration in this article highlights a few key words from our 25 years of being a voice for Nebraska’s kids. As always, the child is the center of what we do!

“Fact: As each goose flaps its wings it creates an “uplift” for the birds that fol-low. By flying in a V-formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of another.”

Child’s View • 3

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By Melissa Breazile

Our state and nation’s future prosperity hinges on the ability of today’s youth to pro-ductively and actively participate in growing the economy. Preparing them for the future – through education, jobs, and opportunity – is key.

However, in 2011, 12% of Nebraska’s youth were considered disconnected, mean-ing they were not working or in school. That’s up from 10% in 2000. The youth em-ployment rate (which includes those ages 16 to 24) dropped during that same timeframe from 73% to 60%.

Nebraska’s not alone in struggling to con-nect its youth to jobs and opportunity. But

according to the new policy report Youth and Work: Restoring Teen and Young Adult Connections to Opportunity, from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, such statistics “suggest dire consequences for financial stability and employment prospects in that population.”

The report notes that young people are finding many doors closed to them as they start out in the workforce. Even low-wage or starter jobs require ever-rising credentials or go to older workers with better experience. “At this rate,” the report says, “a generation will grow up with little early work experi-ence, missing the chance to build knowledge and the job-readiness skills that come from holding part-time and starter jobs.”

By Melissa Breazile

Jan. 23 will mark the release of the 20th edition of the Kids Count in Nebraska Re-port. That’s 20 years of reporting reliable, timely data that tells the whole story of child well-being in Nebraska.

We’re not just celebrating the 20th edition, though. We’re also celebrating the launch of a new look for Kids Count in Nebraska.

One of the most obvious changes you’ll see in the 2012 report is that it’s far more visually-oriented than in years past. We’ve condensed the narrative-heavy portions of reports past into smaller bites of informa-tion – more bullet points, more charts, and more infographics.

These changes are intended to help you, the data user, find the numbers you need quickly and easily.

Some things don’t change. As in past books, this year’s edition includes a com-mentary on a particular aspect of child well-being. Because of all the changes that have occurred within Nebraska’s child wel-fare system in recent years, we believed it would be helpful to use data to paint a cur-rent picture of where kids are in the sys-

tem and how we can respond thoughtfully and deliberate-ly to their needs.

In addition, this year’s re-port will feature new data in-dicators throughout the book, especially in child welfare, juvenile justice, and early childhood. These new indi-cators were added to ensure that Kids Count in Nebraska keeps pace with the ever-in-creasing need to understand child well-being in our state.

None of this reporting would be possible, how-ever, without the expertise of the Kids Count Techni-cal Team of Advisors - the individuals who are responsible for sharing data from their respective agencies and help-ing us understand the meaning behind the numbers. We are thankful for their support.

As we gear up for the launch of the new Kids Count in Nebraska Report, we hope that you will mark your calendars and attend one of our release events. Details for the re-lease events can be found on the back cover.

20th Edition of Kids Count to Feature a Fresh Look

More Youth in Nebraska are ‘Disconnected’

Betsy Clarke and Jim McCarter from Illinois shared the success of the Redeploy Illinois program in improving community safety, effectively serving youth, and sav-ing state dollars. Jeanette Moll and Marc Levin presented a paper on Nebraska’s juvenile justice system that highlighted the need for great-er County Aid dollars.

All of the summit materials are available on Voices for Children’s website: www.voicesforchildren.com/jjsummit.

Our hope is that organizations, stakeholders, and policymakers con-tinue to build on what we know is working here in Nebraska and around the country. The Juvenile Justice Summit is just the beginning of Voic-es for Children’s work over the next few years to ensure that youth receive the right services at the right time, in the right way, that put them on the path to a successful adulthood.

Juvenile Justice Summitfrom page 1

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With the legislative session upon us, information and news about the poli-cies that affect kids moves fast. Connect with Voices for Children to make sure you stay up-to-date!

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Connect with Voices for Children

in the New Year!

We’re excited to announce that the 20th edition of the Kids Count in Nebraska Report will be released January 23 and 24, 2013.

We will be releasing the redesigned data book at a pair of breakfast events:

Lincoln – January 237:45 am McPhee Elementary

(820 Goodhue Blvd.)

Omaha – January 248:30 am Nebraska Children’s Home Society

(4939 S. 118th St.)

RSVP at http://voicesforchildren.com/kidscountRSVP

or by calling (402) 597-3100

Order a copy of the new Kids Count in Nebraska Report at

http://voicesforchildren.com/orderKC2012

Kids Count Report Release

Youth and Work argues that we must ensure that youth gain aca-demic know-how, technical skills, and the “soft skills” necessary to successfully launch a career. The report calls for a national youth employment strategy, which includes the following policy priorities:

• Promote funding that follows youth across systems, including youth who are out of school;

• Identify and provide enhanced support for populations who are disconnected, including young parents;

• Link funding to more accountability- and results-based out- comes, such as degree attainment rather than enrollment;

• Create more efficient and accessible systems, such as for finan- cial aid;

• Creative incentives, such as a youth payroll tax credit, to encour- age more businesses to hire young people; and

• Track outcomes across systems to better understand the needs and progress of disconnected youth.

More recommendations and complete details are available in the report, which may be accessed online at http://bit.ly/V73or9.

More Youth in Nebraska are ‘Disconnected’

IN THIS ISSUEu Juvenile Justice Summit

u Letter From the Executive Director

u 20th Edition of Kids Count to Feature a Fresh Look

u More Youth in Nebraska are ‘Disconnected’

u Connect with Voices for Children in the New Year

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