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Guidebook for Juvenile Justice & Child Welfare System Coordination and Integration: A Framework for Improved Outcomes

“The Guidebook is designed to help jurisdictions engage in a process to determine what integration and coordination efforts will best achieve improved outcomes for children and families and the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. It can be used in conjunction with the publication, Dual Status Youth - Technical Assistance Workbook [NIC accession no. 028039] that provides month-by-month direction to implement the structure, policies, and practices to address dual status youth” (p. xx). It explains the four phases of the initiative process: Phase 1-Mobilization and Advocacy; Phase 2-Study and Analysis (i.e., data collection, management, and performance measurement, resources and practice, and law, policy, and information sharing; Phase 3-Action Strategy; Phase 4-Implementation. Appendixes include: Federal Legislation to Support Systems Coordination and Integration Between Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare; Keeping Our Children Safe--The Child Protection System; The Juvenile Justice System; Executive Summary from Doorways to Delinquency--Multi-System Involvement of Delinquent Youth?; King County, Washington; Oregon’s Executive Order; Baltimore City Memorandum of Understanding; Hopetown Hypothetical Agreement; Discussion Questions for Barriers to Integration and Coordination; Descriptions of Federal Programs for Children and Families; and summaries of federal programs for juvenile justice.