Author: Lauren Curtis

The RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice (RFKNRCJJ) has used a proven framework to partner with state and local jurisdictions to conduct multiple probation and youth justice system reviews designed to improve outcomes for youth and families at-risk or involved in the juvenile justice systems for more than fifteen years. RFK’s successful technical assistance partnerships have produced an impressive array of positive innovations and reforms to the policies and operations that impact youth outcomes and increase community safety.

The RFK National Resource Center is applying these positive experiences and lessons learned in the Probation and Youth Justice System Project in Clark County, Washington; San Diego County, California; and the tri-county District 25 in the state of North Carolina. The project will produce replicable methods, approaches and operations for probation, courts, and the broader youth justice system.

The RFK National Resource Center has produced other resources and guides that permit youth justice system reviews to be successfully replicated nationwide.

RFK will be hosting a 2025 Transformation of Youth Justice National Symposium in San Diego, California on June 18-20, 2025, designed for multi-disciplinary professionals and youth-serving stakeholders committed to advancing youth justice transformation.

The Keeping Families Together: Preserving and Reunifying Families with Substance Use Disorder (KFT) project was established to refine and test a Family Recovery Court (FRC) model for child welfare-involved families with substance use disorders. In collaboration with the Williamson County Family Recovery Court, Dr. Catherine LaBrenz and her team at the University of Texas at Arlington (Dr. Hui Huang, Dr. Philip Baiden, and Dr. Yeonwoo Kim) partnered to manualize the FRC model, assess ongoing barriers and facilitators of implementation, provide continuous quality improvement, and examine the effectiveness of the model in increasing recovery and reunification. Through interviews with key stakeholders, they identified four key pillars that differentiate the FRC from traditional courts: 1) trauma-informed and non-adversarial approach; 2) family-centeredness; 3) accountability; and 4) community connectedness.

Through a shared vision and active collaboration, the FRC providers have increased community infrastructure to support parents and ensure thriving families. This includes provider participation in bimonthly meetings, trainings, and biweekly staffing to enhance a trauma-informed community approach to work with child welfare-involved families. Since the start of this project in 2023, 20 parents have been accepted into the program: of these, six have graduated, four had their cases transferred or were expelled, and the remaining 10 are currently in the program.

“I was offered recovery court after multiple CPS cases. I just wasn’t ready to get clean and I actually ended up going to rehab on my own. They offered me family recovery court afterwards and that was probably the family recovery court saved my life. I don’t think that I would have succeeded without it. Just going to rehab alone, probably would not have done it for me. I will be two years clean in November and that’s thanks to all the support with family recovery court, the accountability that they [have], they hold you accountable. You know, you have to go to court dates and see coaches and therapists and all those things combined. Without it, I wouldn’t’ have been able to be here today, I don’t think.”

-Parent Graduate

“I definitely see us involving more community partners, which is exciting. As we meet new families, we start identifying things we don’t know how to handle, or we are able to better identify the need outside of the recovery piece.”

-FRC Provider