The Sierra Health Foundation (SHF) in partnership with The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) and The California Endowment (TCE) has launched the first of its kind statewide Positive Youth Justice Initiative (PYJI). SHF is offering various invited counties throughout California the opportunity to collaboratively improve upon or develop wraparound services for cross-over youth, utilizing strengths-based approaches with an emphasis on trauma-informed care. SHF will provide awarded counties with extraordinary Technical Assistance delivered directly from numerous California juvenile justice experts.
SHF’s innovative and forward-thinking research has encouraged foundations to partner in the pursuit of improving county service delivery processes for the most at-risk and high-needs youth. This collective decision to prioritize statewide reform for this often overlooked population is commendable.
On June 7th, SHF highlighted San Francisco’s unique community-based wraparound approach, through the panel presentation presented at the second of the PYJI Speakers Series. Watch the video to learn the hurdles “Bobby” faced and what he received through CJCJ’s wraparound program to support him realize his own assets and personal strengths. CJCJ specializes in maximization of often underutilized funds and service delivery mechanisms, as was originally recommended in CJCJ’s “Renewing Juvenile Justice” publication.
It is an amazing sight when a Probation Department, Office of Education, Public Defender’s Office, and community-based organizations can set aside their bureaucratic differences in order to partner on improving critical services for their county’s most vulnerable youth. As I am sure Matt Cervantes, Program Officer at SHF, would agree, working together is certainly more challenging, but it is well-worth the rewards, especially if the youth are the ones reaping those rewards.