Children And Youth Justice Center

Ccyj manages one project specific to child welfare system reform: early childhood courts is a portfolio that manages the statewide expansion of the safe babies court team (sbct) approach in washington. This approach was implemented in five counties, and planning is underway to expand to additional sites in the next year. The sbct approach is a therapeutic court model that utilizes a community wide, systems-change approach that leverages collaboration among courts, child welfare, and community organizations. This approach has a strong focus on reducing trauma and providing more equitable and holistic supports to children under the age of three and their families in, or at risk of entering, the child welfare system. More frequent engagement occurs with families to elevate their voices, identify needs, track goals and progress, and problem-solve throughout the case. The sbct approach also focuses on supporting parent-child relationships and connecting them to appropriate, timely services. Ccyj supports this work through subcontracts with multiple court sites who utilize this approach in their court system, and provides ongoing technical support to each court site, as well as peer learning and training opportunities. Ccyj maintains contact with the national organization that developed the model, ensuring fidelity to the approach. Ccyj also facilitates a statewide advisory board that addresses ongoing, systemic needs identified at the court sites, and works to develop policies and practices to improve experiences of those in dependency systems, with the ultimate goal of reunification for families.

Ccyj manages three projects that combine youth justice and child welfare systems reform:ccyj's project respect, launched in 2011, is building and sustaining a statewide, coordinated, and victim/survivor centered response to the commercial sexual exploitation of children in washington state. Project respect fulfills this goal by supporting regional multi-disciplinary task forces and coalitions that address csec, providing support to the csec statewide coordinating committee, and educating and advocating for policy change. In 2024, the csec statewide coordinating committee brought together high-level leadership in washington state as well as representatives from each of the 10 regional task forces. While regional task forces supported children and youth in their community, the csec statewide coordinating committee identified trends and best practices across the state, worked with law enforcement, statewide agencies such as dcyf, and elected officials and developed policy recommendations and responses that work for children and regions across the state. Ccyj provided technical assistance to the regional task force leads, which benefits communities across washington. Equality was launched by ccyj in 2013 as a multi-phase project aimed at creating lasting systems reform and pathways to healthy stable adulthood for youth involved in the child welfare and youth justice systems. Equality works to improve treatment of and outcomes for systems involved youth. Equality developed the protocol for safe & affirming care, a guide for youth serving professionals in the foster care and youth justice systems to engage and serve youth while simultaneously collecting data on their needs, experiences, and outcomes. Equality began pilot implementation of the protocol for safe & affirming care in three sites in 2017, king county juvenile court, spokane county juvenile court, and the spokane office of children's administration. In 2020, equality expanded implementation in clark, whatcom, pierce, walla walla, pend orielle, klickitat, and skamania counties, and began partnering with community-based providers as well as foster care and juvenile courts. In 2024, ccyj continued to provide support to implementation sites by facilitating peer sharing and offering formal training opportunities on a quarterly basis, as well as 2 regional, in-person community convenings. The project continued to host quarterly core team meetings, providing the opportunity for counties to discuss and address issues impacting youth and young adults in both urban and rural areas. A monthly statewide newsletter also keeps stakeholders engaged in training opportunities and updated on events occurring across the state. In its holistic children's legal services efforts, ccyj is collaborating with washington state legal services providers who serve youth to better understand the scope and impact of available legal services for children and youth and to develop a preliminary plan for expanding holistic children's legal services across the state. The theory of change is that in providing holistic legal services that meet all the legal needs of children and youth, the state of washington could prevent negative outcomes such as homelessness and systems involvement. In 2024, ccyj partnered with students from the uw evan school of public policy & governance, to create an internal report analyzing the availability of holistic legal services for young people under the age or 25 and barriers legal partners face in providing quality services in washington state with data collection and input from 10+ organizations.