Title: Coordinating Council Promotes Federal
Collaboration

Series: Fact Sheet

Author: Amy Callaghan

Published: December 2000

Subject: Juvenile justice-general

5 pages

8,000 bytes

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Coordinating Council Promotes Federal Collaboration

by Amy Callaghan 

Established by Section 206 of the Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act of 1974, as
amended, the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention (the Council) encourages
Federal agencies to collaborate on programs that
improve juvenile justice systems, prevent juvenile
delinquency, and focus on missing and exploited
children. The Council facilitates interagency
collaboration through program coordination, program
planning, and policy development. 

The Council meets quarterly at the call of its Chair,
the Attorney General of the United States. The
Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is the Vice Chair. The
Council comprises nine ex officio members and nine
non-Federal members. The ex officio members are the
Attorney General; the Secretaries of the Departments
of Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and
Urban Development, and Labor; the Administrator of
OJJDP; the Director of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy; the Chief Executive Officer of the
Corporation for National Service; and the
Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service. The President, the President of the Senate,
and the Speaker of the House of Representatives each
appoint three practitioners to serve as non-Federal
members. Council meetings serve as forums for
exchanging information, ideas, and research findings
about juvenile delinquency and missing and exploited
children. 

National Juvenile Justice Action Plan

The Council plays an important role in developing
comprehensive, systematic Federal responses to issues
and problems associated with juvenile justice and
delinquency prevention. As required by the JJDP Act,
the Council makes annual recommendations to Congress
on policies, priorities, and long-term planning
regarding programs related to delinquency and missing
and exploited children. To this purpose, the Council
developed and published Combating Violence and
Delinquency: The National Juvenile Justice Action
Plan (Action Plan) in 1996. The Action Plan
encourages communities to develop partnerships with
State and Federal agencies to address and reduce the
impact of juvenile violence and delinquency. It
presents a framework for dealing with delinquent
offenders and describes programs to help youth
achieve positive futures. The Action Plan lays out
eight objectives that individuals, communities,
States, and the Federal Government can support to
bring about positive change. The Council is updating
the Action Plan through a series of eight Bulletins
(one for each Action Plan objective). Each Bulletin
will describe the progress the Federal Government has
made in responding to the recommendations set forth
under a given objective.

Interagency Working Groups

As part of its efforts to foster collaboration among
agencies, the Council often establishes interagency
working groups. Two recent examples are the
Interagency Working Group on the Link Between Child
Maltreatment and Juvenile Delinquency and the
Interagency Working Group on Gender Issues. The first
of these working groups, created in recognition of
the correlation between child maltreatment and future
involvement in serious or violent delinquency, seeks
to foster interdisciplinary collaboration at the
State and local levels. Members of the working group
and staff from OJJDP and the Child Welfare League of
America participated in State forums in Alaska,
California, Indiana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina,
and Washington, DC. The forums brought together State
legislators and representatives from child welfare,
law enforcement, juvenile justice, and public health
and mental health agencies. To help State
policymakers address the relationship between
maltreatment and delinquency, the working group also
developed "Presentation Talking Points on the Link
Between Child Maltreatment and Delinquency." The
talking points discuss a variety of topics and can be
customized by speakers to address the concerns of
various audiences. They are available on OJJDP's Web
site (www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/council/child.html). 

The Interagency Working Group on Gender Issues
provides a forum for Federal agencies to share
information about gender-specific research, programs,
and training and technical assistance. This working
group encourages the creation of partnerships among
Federal, State, and local agencies. The working group
is providing guidance for three OJJDP gender
initiatives: the National Institute for Girls, the
National Girls Study Group, and a National Girls
Symposium (planned for fiscal year 2001). The working
group also will prepare a report for the Council that
includes an overview of Federal activities and
recommendations for additional research, programming,
and training and technical assistance focusing on
gender issues.

Web Sites

To take advantage of increasing public access to the
Internet, the Council supported the creation of two
new Web sites to provide coordinated information on
topics of public interest. One of these Web sites
(www.childrenwithdisabilities.ncjrs.org), which the
Council helped OJJDP develop, offers information and
resources for disabled children, their families, and
service providers. It includes a calendar of events;
research and statistical reports; information about
Federal, State, and local funding opportunities; and
other resources.

The Council also facilitated a Web site focused on
the needs of parents. Created in response to a
suggestion made by Attorney General Janet Reno,
Parenting Resources for the 21st Century
(www.parentingresources.ncjrs.org) is an online guide
that links parents to information that can help them
meet the challenges of raising a child. Council
representatives from Federal agencies collaborated
with the practitioner members of the Council to
launch the Web site as part of a national agenda to
foster positive youth development and reduce violence
and delinquency. The site provides links to hundreds
of parenting resources and includes information about
a variety of topics, including children's
developmental stages, teen employment, volunteering,
and mentoring.

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For Further Information

For additional information about the Coordinating
Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, contact:

Kimberly J. Budnick, Director 

Concentration of Federal Efforts Program

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

810 Seventh Street NW.

Washington, DC 20531

202-307-5911

To obtain a copy of the Action Plan or other
publications from OJJDP, contact:

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

800-638-8736

301-519-5600 (fax)

puborder@ncjrs.org (e-mail)

www.puborder.ncjrs.org (Internet)

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Amy Callaghan is a Juvenile Justice Program
Specialist with OJJDP.

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The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice
Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice
Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the
National Institute of Justice, and the Office for
Victims of Crime.

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FS-200021