Shay Bilchik at the Reclaiming Futures Leadership Institute

In addition to hosting Marian Wright Edelman at our Leadership Institute in New Orleans last week, we were also honored to have Mr. Shay Bilchik (seen at left with Laura Nissen, National Director of Reclaiming Futures) as our guest. Mr. Bilchik is founder and director of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University. (The CJJR recently put out recommendations on improving services to youth transitioning out of the juvenile justice and/or child welfare systems.)
Mr. Bilchik spoke entertainingly and cogently on where he thinks the juvenile justice system needs to go to be successful. The full text of his remarks should be available in the next few weeks; in the mean time, rough notes on his speech are below. (I'm grateful to Reclaiming Futures staffer Mimmy Patterson for her extensive notes, which I've supplemented here and there. My apologies to Mr. Bilchik if we've mangled his presentation.) 

• Question:  what would it be like for you if you woke up this morning and knew it wasn't going to get any better than it was today? This is how most youth in the justice system feel. What our chlidren need:  love, opportunity, and hope.
• Yet when kids are propelled into the juvenile justice system, they are disconnected from supports they need be successful - e.g., school, family, etc. They need a comprehensive web of support to provide love, opportunity, and hope. 
• National trend of cross-system work that's tearing down barriers between silos: it's not just the juvenile justice field, the child welfare field, behavioral health, housing, labor, etc.
• The United Kingdom is ahead on this, and has developed a national youth and child policy that helps facilitate cross-sector cooperation. We need something similar, a "children's cabinet" that will coordinate efforts across a wide range of services. It would be ideal to have these in every state and locality, as in the UK.
• Senator Reid has asked the Obama Administration to create an Office for Children in the White House. 
• Four elements are necessary to create a national youth policy: political will/leaders; public belief the work is important; structural supports; and funding.
• Political leadership, political will: need leaders willing to collaborate, share power, resources; and committed to transparency.
• Public perception: need to educate the public and poll the public - this is a very difficult area. 
• Structural supports: the Reclaiming Futures model is a good example of addressing the chasms between disciplines and service agencies.
• Financing: we can’t provide kids with the services they need without resources for planning and implementation. Need to ensure Medicaid is available to kids in institutional settings, provide more of a universal healthcare approach.  And we need to provide better support for our workforce.
• What's next? Expect to see greater federal support for community-based services, deinstitutionalizing youth. Expect equal or lower levels of federal funding; a change away from the violation-accountability standpoint toward family- and child-focused practice; and greater emphasis on community engagement.

 Finally, here's a 51-second video of Mr. Bilchik on juvenile justice reform: