In November, Commissioner Schiraldi and Chief of Staff Michael Ognibene invited members of the YTFG’s Juvenile Justice Work Group on a tour of the community-based programs offered through DoP. One of the probation officers explained that, “the goal is to target youth in the context of family, neighborhood, and community. We need to listen and be responsive to the needs of clients.” With this goal in mind, we visited sites around the city asking two important questions: What components of the model are making the greatest impact on youth? And how can these components be successfully replicated in other jurisdictions?
Throughout the day, staff, volunteers, and youth were eager to share their experiences and insights, attributing the early success of the model to a few key features:
The model ensures that services are accessible in the communities where clients live. The newly-created Neighborhood Opportunity Networks (NeONs) are designed to provide a “one-stop-shop” for probation and social services located within targeted communities. Clients are now welcomed into renovated spaces that offer a computer lab, study tables, and resources for housing, healthcare, education and employment programs, and substance abuse treatment. GED classes are offered daily and a Poet-in-Residence conducts weekly poetry clinics. In order to determine the level of services needed, each client receives a risk assessment and individual achievement plan that builds upon personal strengths.
It intentionally engages the broader community in planning and decision-making. A key strategy for DoP is to partner with communities by developing a stakeholder group for each NeON. The stakeholder groups allow community members to play an important role in decision-making and asset mapping. Additionally, each NeON will engage in a community benefit project designed to boost community involvement and repair harm caused by crime.
The model cultivates positive relationships between youth and adults. One of DoP’s most effective partnerships is with Arches, a transformative mentoring program that helps justice-involved young adults transform the attitudes and behaviors that led to their criminal activity. One of the mentors we met on the tour explained that youth often want to change but they don’t know how. As part of the curriculum, they talk about influences, community contribution, and pursuing goals. They also expose youth to a variety of opportunities by bringing them to job fairs, college visits, and other prosocial activities like basketball tournaments and youth summits.
It focuses on education and employment so that youth gain the tools they need to be successful. For school-aged youth, DoP launched a partnership with Roads Charter High School called PEAK that prioritizes admission for court-involved youth who would otherwise go to placement. Roads already has a strong history of graduating opportunity youth (those who are court-involved, homeless or in transition, or in foster care) who are over-age and under-credited. After-school programming offered by Children’s Aid Society provides additional opportunities for students to explore their talents throughout the evening. One student who was displaying her artwork told us, “I used to feel like I was not important. But here, everyone makes you feel comfortable, like family.”
For older youth, DoP established ECHOES, an employment-based alternative to placement that connects participants to paid work experiences. Young people also receive help with resume development, clothes for interviews, and getting state IDs, social security cards, birth certificates, and library cards. Probation officers serve as job coaches in the field, further redefining the traditional role of probation.
DoP’s initiatives have made a significant impact and have the potential to reach many more people if expanded in New York and replicated in other states. Many of the issues they are trying to tackle—gang involvement, drug use, and intergenerational incarceration—are challenging and don’t necessarily fall in the domain of one system. Still, Commissioner Schiraldi’s inspiring mantra, “Do no harm. Do more good. Do it in the community,” has given rise to a movement that breaks down systemic barriers and opens new pathways for staff, community members, and young people to partner together for a brighter future.
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For an in-depth overview of the NeONs, read the APPA’s feature article from the Fall 2013 edition of Perspectives: Neighborhood Opportunity Network: Transforming Probation.
For a progress report from DoP, check out Do More Good: A Progress Report from the New York City Department of Probation.
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Michelle Weemhoff is YTFG's Juvenile Justice Work Group Coordinator
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