This report documents legislative victories as well as what is left to be done in keeping youth out of adult court

Twelve years ago, the Campaign for Youth Justice (CFYJ) set out to get young people removed from the adult justice system. In an effort to achieve that goal, since 2011, it has issued periodically a State Trends Report documenting legislative victories and what’s left to be done.

In that time, a lot has changed. Although, too much has stayed the same. The CFYJ laid out its findings in the recently released “Raising the Bar: State Trends in Keeping Youth Out of Adult Courts (2015-2017).”

Multisystemic therapists, funders and families from the UK explain how MST works in 5 minutes

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, then a video is worth at least a million—maybe more.

If you are a parent, funder, therapist or community stakeholder, you don’t want to miss this video. 

Inspired from an unlikely place, one MST expert reflects on the value of kindness 

“You’re mean to each other.” That's what he said, and it shocked me. Maybe because it's true, and I didn't want to believe it. Or maybe I've been too ignorant to see it and just didn't want to believe it. Or maybe I was just embarrassed by the simple truth of it. Whatever it was, it caused me to think about those words for a long time. That’s definitely not the perception I want others to have.

Those were the words of a taxi driver as he drove me from the airport to my hotel upon my arrival in a foreign country.

She didn't think MST would work, but now this Scottish mum is grateful she gave MST a chance so her son could remain at home

Sean* was referred to Multisystemic Therapy (MST) Edinburgh by his social worker in July 2017. He was being reported missing to police as frequently as every day. He was using drugs, offending in the community and would often smash up property within the home. Sean’s mother, Ms. Spencer*, described the family as being in a “desperate situation.” She believed that having her son taken into Local Authority care was her only option. She said, “I couldn’t cope. My whole family was stressed, and it all became unbearable. I had to resign from my job as I was calling in sick continuously due to Sean’s behaviour. It was impossible to manage.” 

Georgia juvenile justice reform, led by Gov. Nathan Deal, wins award 

A year after taking office, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal recognized that he had an opportunity, and a responsibility, to fix the state’s criminal justice system. A year later, in 2013, he expanded his focus to include the state’s juvenile justice system. Shortly thereafter, the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) partnered with the Pew Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, among others, to explore ways to reduce the unnecessary, ineffective, and expensive overuse of out of home placement of youth who ran into trouble with the law as adolescents.

Much to CJCCs surprise, many of the juveniles placed out of home had committed misdemeanor or status offenses.

How Multisystemic Therapy gave this young man from Compton a chance to be more than a statistic

In the summer of 2017, The New Yorker ran an article titled “American Inferno: The Life of a South Central Statistic.” This was a woman’s story of how her cousin became involved in the juvenile  justice system and his eventual murder—making him one more tragic statistic.

As a Multisystemic Therapy (MST) therapist in the Compton and South Central areas of Los Angeles County, I see these “statistics” play out in real life.

Before Highfields' Multisystemic Therapy team came along, Sandra and her son, Larry, didn’t know how to communicate without arguing. 

Last year, Sandra and her family moved to a new home in a new school district. This created a lot of stress for her oldest child, 15-year-old Larry. 

Sandra saw changes in him. He was hanging out with the wrong crowd, not focusing in school and making bad decisions. They argued constantly about power dynamics, such as who was in charge or who would have the final word. They didn’t know how to communicate with each other.

Virginia replaces correctional centers with evidence-based practices, MST is one of them

In June 2017, the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) closed its Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center, which had been housing more than 160 young men. The center had first started receiving youth offenders in 1890, and its yearly budget had grown to $26,039,540 by 2016.

The closing was good news for some youth advocates. Even better news came this month when the DJJ announced it would be using savings from the closing to fund Multisystemic Therapy (MST). In a statement, the department referred to MST as “a highly-regarded evidence-based model,” which would be made available “to court-involved youth in traditionally underserved areas of the Commonwealth.”

Members of the new MST teams

School professionals play a vital role in children's lives. Here are 9 strategies they can use to help their students succeed in school.

When families and schools work together, everyone wins. When both systems are open to one another, the school-to-prison pipeline can be interrupted. As this new school year begins, take on the challenge to understand each other, and to support and problem-solve together. It’s a new school year and a new opportunity for success and progress for students, schools and families.

In Part 1 of our blog, we considered what strategies families could use to help their children succeed. In Part 2 of our blog, let’s consider how we can effectively build those positive home-school links by examining what educational professionals can do to support student success.

School season can be stressful. Here are 9 strategies for families to help their children succeed in school.

It’s back to school season—from shopping for supplies to the sounds of early morning buses. For many young people, this can be a happy time of year, a time when they will start fresh or rejoin old classmates or re-connect with teachers. For some, the sights and sounds of crowded hallways bring a sense of excitement. But many youth—and families—do not have the same joyful anticipation. Many students and parents have lumps in their throats or experience anxiety when they think about returning to school and the concerns it brings—bullying, truancy, suspensions or exclusions, the dreaded phone call from school when a problem arises and the potential that things may escalate to involvement with child-protective services or the juvenile-justice system.