Coordinating Council 

on Juvenile Justice and 

Delinquency Prevention 

Report of Activities 

and 

Recommendations 

to Congress 

2001-2008 

December 2008 

Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 1 
Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 2 

Statutory Responsibilities of the 

Coordinating Council 

1. Coordinate federal juvenile delinquency programs, programs 

and activities that detain or care for unaccompanied juveniles, 

and programs relating to missing and exploited children. 

2. Examine how programs can be coordinated among federal, 

state, and local governments to better serve at-risk youth. 

3. Make annual recommendations to the Congress with respect 

to “coordination of overall policy and development of objectives 

and priorities for all federal programs and activities that detain 

or care for unaccompanied juveniles.” 

4. Review the programs and practices of federal agencies and 

report on the degree to which federal agency funds are used 

for purposes consistent with the requirements of the JJDP Act. 

5. Review and make recommendations with respect to joint 

funding proposals undertaken between OJJDP and any agency 

represented on the Council 

6. Review the reasons why federal agencies take juveniles into 

custody and make recommendations to improve federal 

practices and facilities for holding juveniles in custody.

Introduction 

More than 30 years ago, Congress enacted landmark legislation establishing the Office of 

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to support state and local efforts to 

prevent delinquency and improve the juvenile justice system. The same 1974 Juvenile Justice 

and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act also established the Coordinating Council on 

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Council), an independent body within the 

executive branch of the federal government, with a mandate to coordinate federal juvenile 

delinquency prevention programs in cooperation with state and local juvenile justice programs, 

federal programs and activities that detain or care for unaccompanied juveniles, and federal 

programs relating to missing and exploited children. 

This report:

• Describes the role of the Council, its statutory responsibilities, structure, current goals and 

approach to its work; 

• Reviews priorities and the 

framework that has guided the 

Council’s recent work; 

• Provides a historical review of 

the Council’s work, briefly 

touching on the highlights of 

the past 12 years of Council 

activities from 1996 through 

2008; 

• Details the achievements of the 

Council under this 

Administration; and, 

• Sets forth recommendations for 

future action. 

Coordinating Council Structure 

The Council has 18 members. Nine 

ex officio members represent the 

following federal agencies—the 

Departments of Justice, Education, 

Health and Human Services, 

Housing and Urban Development, 

Homeland Security/Immigration and 

Customs Enforcement, and Labor; 

the Office of National Drug Control 
Policy; the Corporation for National and Community Service; and the Office of Juvenile Justice 

and Delinquency Prevention within the Department of Justice. 

Up to nine members are juvenile justice practitioners who are appointed by the Speaker of the 

House of Representatives, the Senate Majority Leader, and the President of the United States 

to serve terms of one to three years. 

The Attorney General serves as Chair and the Administrator of OJJDP is the Vice Chair. 

S ec re ta ry

De pa rt me nt of H e alt h

a nd Hum a n

S e rv ice s

Se c re ta ry

D e partm e nt of

H ous ing and U rban

D ev e lopm ent

Se cret ary

D e partm e nt of 

Educ at io n

Se cre tary

D e partm e nt of

L abor

Vice Chair

A dm inist ra tor

O ffice of J uv enile

J us tice an d De linque ncy

Pr e ve ntion

S ec ret ary

D epa rtm en t of H om ela nd

Se curity and Im m igra tion

and Custom s

E nforce m ent

C hair

A tt orne y Gen er al

D epa rtm ent of

J ust ic e

Prac titione r M e m bers

N ine App oin tee s , Thre e

E ac h by S e nate , H ouse , 

and P re s id ent

C hie f Ex e cut iv e Offic er

C or pora tion for

N ationa l an d 

Com m unity

Se r vic e

D ire c tor

Of fice of N a tional

D r ug Con trol

P olic y

Co or dinatin g C ou ncil

E x O fficio and P r actitio ner

M embers

The Council Supports the Juvenile Justice Mission

OJJDP is the only federal agency with the sole and specific mission to develop and disseminate 

knowledge about what works to prevent juvenile delinquency and violence and to improve the 

effectiveness of the juvenile justice system. Yet OJJDP’s work is measurably enhanced by—in 

fact, depends upon and requires—coordination with a host of federal agencies, between 

researchers and practitioners at all levels of government, and with the private sector. The key 

value of the Coordinating Council is its mandate to examine the breadth of federal research, 

funding, programs, and policy addressing issues affecting at-risk youth across the domestic 

federal agencies. 

The Council work thus aligns with and assists in achievement of OJJDP’s overall goal—to 

prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and youth victimization. That entails providing 

federal assistance to help states and localities enact a gamut of strategies regarding mentoring, 

child maltreatment, underage drinking, gang prevention and suppression, treatment services for 

juveniles in correctional programs, disproportionate minority contact, gender-specific 

programming, and tribal youth concerns, among other issues. Importantly, because states and 

localities can benefit by extending their resources with training, technical assistance, and other 

guidance from OJJDP and other federal agencies, the federal government can assist by easing 

access to the myriad resources available. 

Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 3 
Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 4 

Juvenile Justice Action Plan 

Developed by the 

Coordinating Council 

• Provide immediate intervention, sanctions, 

and treatment for juveniles. 

• Prosecute certain serious, violence and 

chronic offenders in criminal court. 

• Address guns, drugs, and gangs. 

• Foster opportunities for children and youth. 

• Address youth victimization, abuse, and 

neglect. 

• Strengthen and mobilize communities. 

• Support development of innovative 

approaches to research and evaluation. 

• Implement an aggressive public outreach 

campaign on effective strategies to combat

juvenile violence. 

Council Goals 

To support OJJDP’s mission and to – ultimately – improve the well being of children and youth 

most at risk (youth in the justice and dependency systems, tribal youth, and unaccompanied 

youth under government care), the Council has adopted a corollary set of goals: 

1. Strengthen the practice of inter- and intra-agency youth-focused collaboration 

2. Increase knowledge, dissemination, and use of evidence-based programs in juvenile justice 

and prevention work 

3. Elevate the importance of a comprehensive juvenile justice agenda at the federal level, and 

achieve an increased alignment of goals between the juvenile justice and other systems at all 

levels of government. 

How the Council Fulfills its Mission

The primary means by which the Council addresses these goals is through examination and 

coordination of federal programs, policy, resources, and activities directed at or which have 

potential for improving results for justice-involved and at-risk children and youth, and by 

coordinating resources and policies in support of children, youth, families and communities to 

prevent delinquency and strengthen the juvenile justice system. 

The Council’s quarterly meetings present opportunities for member agencies to share 

information on programs and relevant research efforts, and serve as a vehicle for constituencies 

that do not normally interact to learn from each other and about relevant work. It provides a 

setting within which Council member agencies may identify opportunities to support a single 

program through joint funding or to collaborate in particular communities to focus programs and 

resources to achieve successful outcomes for juveniles. 

The Council facilitates joint projects in a variety of ways including interagency agreements; inkind contributions of staff time and resources, participation on longstanding and ad hoc interagency working groups and partnerships; and 

coordinated and joint funding of initiatives. 

Setting Priorities: Frameworks for Action 

The list of problems and needs and potential 

program focuses in juvenile justice can be 

daunting. Over the last 10 years, two important, 

well-researched documents have guided the 

Coordinating Council, OJJDP, and their federal 

partners in developing programs—the findings of 

the Juvenile Justice Action Plan, published in 

1996 by the Council (and reaffirmed in 1999, 

2001 and 2006), and the work of the 2003 White 

House Task Force on Disadvantaged Youth.

A Continuing Council Achievement: Juvenile 

Justice Action Plan 

The Coordinating Council’s Juvenile Justice

Action Plan was developed to provide a 

framework and strategy for action to address the 
Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 5 

White House Task Force Recommendations Adopted by the Coordinating 

Council 

• Improve coordination of mentoring programs. 

• Support state and local community planning process. 

• Develop a unified protocol for Federal “What Works” clearinghouses. 

• Build a rigorous and unified disadvantaged youth research agenda. 

• Improve data collected on the well-being of families. 

• Increase parent involvement in federal youth programs. 

• Recruit youth for federal grant review panels. 

• Develop standards for measuring grantee performance. 

• Implement grantee-level performance measurement guidelines. 

• Conduct rigorous oversight of earmarked grantees. 

• Expand mentoring programs to special target groups such as foster care and 

migrant youth. 

• Target youth who are in public care such as foster care homes and juvenile 

justice institutions. 

• Target youth with a high number of factors putting them at risk such as 

children of incarcerated parents and migrant youth. 

problem of juvenile violence facing communities, their youth, and the juvenile justice system. It 

aligned with two principal components of Juvenile Justice’s Comprehensive Strategy for Serious 

Violent and Chronic Offenders (SVCO)—prevention strategies and graduated sanctions with a 

continuum of treatment alternatives. The Action Plan sets forth eight areas of focus (refer to 

box on page 4) that remain relevant in application to juvenile justice issues a decade later. The 

Action Plan was reaffirmed by the Coordinating Council in 1999, and reaffirmed again by the 

Council in 2001 and 2006. The document is a result of a year-long effort of nearly 80 staff of 

multiple federal agencies, practitioner members of the Council, and OJJDP staff. 

White House Task Force on Disadvantaged Youth 

In 2003, in response to the needs of disadvantaged children, the White House assembled a 

Task Force to develop a comprehensive federal response to the problems of youth failure with a 

focus on enhanced agency accountability and effectiveness. In the Executive Summary of the 

final report (issued in 2004), the Task Force noted that most children are raised in an 

environment that includes love, a secure childhood, adequate housing, access to health care, a 

good education, discipline of character, a sense of personal responsibility, and a commitment to 

their communities and their country, and they grow up to be healthy, responsible, and 

productive 

citizens. For 

other children, 

this kind of life 

does not exist; 

for these 

millions of 

disadvantaged 

youth, the 

government 

plays a 

significant role 

in their lives. 

The President 

appointed 11 

federal 

agencies to 

the Task Force 

and asked 

them to review 

all the existing 

federal 

programs that 

touched youth, and to make recommendations as to where there could be enhanced agency 

accountability and effectiveness. 

In early 2005, the Coordinating Council adopted 13 of the White House Task Force 

recommendations to further refine, guide, and focus the work of the Council. 
Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 6 

Overview of Council Activities from 1996-2008 

1996: Council Develops the Juvenile Justice Action Plan 

As noted above, the Juvenile Justice’s Action Plan, a broad framework for addressing 

delinquency, was published by the Council in March 1996, following a year’s concentrated team 

effort. The results of the Action Plan set the stage for the next decade of work and led to several 

efforts and activities of the Council, including the following:

• Supported the Child Maltreatment Working Group, which developed a series of publications 

and hosted state forums on preventing and responding to abuse and neglect. 

• Created a Parenting Website with tools and resources to help parenting adults 

• Supported a lead paint and delinquency initiative; including a pilot demonstration at a Weed 

and Seed site 

• Supported a Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS/disabled 

children publication series) 

• Supported the Girls Initiative and the associated inter-agency Girls Study Group 

1999, 2001, 2006: Council Reaffirms Value of Action Plan 

At a series of planning retreats, the Council first identified steps to update the Action Plan and 

reaffirmed the value of the eight Action Plan objectives. As part of this work, the Council 

established eight working groups similar to the earlier Child Maltreatment Working Group and 

began development of a bulletin series. The Council proposed cross-agency initiatives to 

strengthen technical assistance provided to the field.

2003: Council Creates Five Subcommittees 

The Council created collaborative working groups across its member agencies to advance work 

in specific arenas, establishing five subcommittees to address Tribal Youth, Drugs and Alcohol, 

Family Health, Education, and Technology, and to develop goals and proposed activities and 

timelines. 

2004: Council Adopts 13 Recommendations from the Final Report of the White House 

Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth 

A description of some the collaborative interagency efforts that resulted from the adoption of 

these recommendations can be found under Council achievements. 

2004: Council Establishes the Council Planning Team 

This is an interagency team composed of federal staff and practitioner members of the Council 

that helps to plan meetings and coordinate Council activities. 
2004: Council Supports GIS Planning and Program Tools 

Beginning in 2004, Council agencies and other partners have worked to develop Geographic 

Information System (GIS) tools with the capacity to display crime problems, community and 

governmental assets including evidence-based programs, and socioeconomic factors to help 

communities, policy makers and program administrators in the prevention and control of crime 

and delinquency. These tools drew upon developmental work undertaken by OJJDP to create 

its model programs database and gang prevention and reduction strategic planning tool and 

were enhanced and populated by a cross agency working team. One was developed into the 

Community Guide to Helping America’s Youth; the other became the SMART web-planning tool. 

2006: Council Supports Coordination through First Round of Inter Agency Agreements 

Through OJJDP, the Council provided funding to several member agencies to enable them to 

coordinate their work and leverage federal resources. The four agreements provided $100,000 

each to the Departments of Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human 

Services and to the Corporation for Community and National Service. Work supported included: 

Federal Mentoring Council. The interagency Federal Mentoring Council (FMC) was 

established under joint leadership of the Corporation and HHS to coordinate federal mentoring 

work and develop new federal initiatives to increase the number of mentor-mentee pairs in the 

nation, particularly those targeting disadvantaged youth. 

Shared Youth Vision (SYV). Led by DOL and supported by the Council, a number of federal 

agencies including DOJ, ED, HUD, HHS, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), CNCS, and 

U.S. Social Security Administration are partnering to reduce barriers and facilitate access to 

federal resources for state and local jurisdictions to improve efforts to serve the nation’s 

neediest youth. In 2007, under separate funding, 16 communities were selected for targeted 

support and funding to demonstrate the types of partnerships and integration strategies that 

should be used to target disadvantaged youth.

SAMHSA Collaboration for Juvenile Treatment Services. This effort supported joint 

development by federal, state, and local authorities of guidelines for working with youth 

offenders in the areas of screening, assessment, referral, and treatment for substance abuse. 

2006: Coordinating Council Hosts First National Conference 

In 2006, the Council held its first Coordinating Council National Conference attended by more 

than 2,000 people and featuring the First Lady as the opening day speaker. Supported by 

OJJDP, the conference provided a framework for action to address the many issues that face 

the nation’s youth. Each of the Council’s member agencies sponsored, organized, and 

facilitated one or more sessions at the Conference, and engaged their constituencies in the 

conference. This was particularly significant in that practitioners, researchers and others with 

interests in prevention and youth well being in different fields such as workforce development, 

substance and drug abuse, juvenile justice, mental health, runaway and abused youth tend to 

communicate predominantly with others in their own fields. Through this conference, these 

groups took advantage of the networking sessions and the discussions to strengthen cross 

sector understanding and work, and to promote coordinated planning. Among the conference's 

most attended workshops was one that featured representatives from more than a dozen 

federal agencies who provided information about accessing federal resources that can be used 

to support state and local efforts to assist youth and families. 

Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 7 
2007: Council Creates Federal Partnership Project 

The Council initiated several activities as part of the Federal Partnership Project to increase the 

ability of federal staff to plan, implement and support comprehensive community initiatives 

(CCIs) designed to improve the well-being of children, youth, family, and community; to 

strengthen federal cross-agency partnerships in support of CCIs; and to enhance the federal 

practice of coordinated assistance to improve the ability of states and local jurisdictions to best 

access and use resources to improve the well-being of children, youth, and families. The core 

product of the Federal Partnership Project is the web-based CCI tool kit for federal program 

managers launched December 2008: http://www.juvenilecouncil.gov/cci/index.asp . 

Additionally, the project compiled a listing of youth-related activities and programming for key 

federal agencies and related budget information to help with future joint planning. The 

compilation updated the Delinquency Development Statements last produced in 1995. 

2008: Council Supports Second Round of Inter Agency Agreements (IAAs) 

The Council funded four new IAAs to support additional work. This work entails: enhanced 

coordination of federal resources for disadvantaged youth, primarily through strengthening and 

enhancing the work associated with the Shared Youth Vision Initiative, to Labor; activities aimed 

at preventing child and adolescent injuries reducing deaths of infants, children, and adolescents 

by developing the capacity of Child Death Review Teams to the Maternal and Child Health 

Bureau of HHS; creation of a web presence for the Federal Mentoring Council to CNCS to aid in 

achievement of their goal of expanding the number of youth mentored; and expansion of model 

theatre programming for youth at-risk of gang involvement to the National Endowment for the 

Arts. 

Recent Council Achievements 

All work of the Council addresses one or more of its three goals (refer to page four). A 

description of recent Council activities is listed on the following pages under the most pertinent 

of its goals. Listed programs and activities reflect efforts that are both sponsored or supported 

through the Council as well as efforts developed primarily by individual Council member 

agencies in conformance with Council goals. 

As noted in the introduction, the Coordinating Council not only supports the development of its 

own projects, publications, and working groups, but also provides an opportunity for the federal 

partners to learn from one another, share information about joint work, and strengthen the 

foundation for pooling resources and joint decision making that addresses prevention and youth 

well being. The following programs support the 13 White House Task Force Recommendations 

adopted by the Council in 2005: 

1. The Council has strengthened the practice of inter/intra agency youth-focused 

collaboration as measured by increases from year to year in the number of inter-agency 

collaborations on juvenile justice issues. 

Council Activity: Shared Youth Vision 

The Shared Youth Vision Partnership serves as a catalyst at the national, state, and local levels 

to strengthen coordination, communication, and collaboration among youth-serving agencies 

working to help at-risk youth make successful and healthy transitions to adult roles and 

responsibilities. Beginning in 2004, the federal partners hosted a series of regional youth forums 

and basic and advanced series of technical assistance conferences focusing on collaboration 

Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 8 
Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 9 

strategies to better serve youth. In 2007, 16 pilot sites were selected to demonstrate the types 

of partnerships and integration strategies that should be used to target disadvantaged youth. 

Shared Youth Vision has developed a number of tools and resources to enhance collaboration 

and information dissemination. Among them are: 

• A collaborative Internet-based workspace provides information to state initiative partners 

and enhances cross-state communication. 

• A federal interagency Solutions Desk provides state teams a single point of access to the 

federal resources available to help states implement Shared Youth Vision activities. 

• A Federal Youth Funding Matrix provides states with information on funding available to 

serve youth in their state from each federal agency. 

• A Federal/State Benchmark Tool provides states with broad principles to help them 

gauge the effectiveness of their collaborative efforts. 

Council Activity: Federal Partnership Project 

As an outgrowth of a strategic planning meeting, the Council initiated the Federal Partnership 

Project (refer also to page 7). The Council has concluded the initial phase of these activities to: 

(1) increase knowledge and strengthen federal collaboration and Comprehensive Community 

Initiatives (CCIs); and (2) enhance federal coordination of assistance to improve the well-being 

of children, youth, and families. The initial phase was marked by production of a set of webbased tools and practice guidelines for federal program and policy staff to assist in the 

development and guidance of future CCIs and associated TA. The tools also address practice 

guidelines for establishing and maintaining cross agency partnerships to support CCBs and 

criteria to help structure and provide the specialized systems change-focused technical 

assistance comprehensive communities require. An update and expansion of the 1995 

Delinquency Development Statements (DDS) report was compiled as a foundation for joint 

planning. In the updated compilation, federal agencies with significant youth portfolios describe 

the extent of their related activities and programs and provide budget and funding cycle 

information. Prior to its most recent reauthorization in 2002, the Juvenile Justice and 

Delinquency Prevention Act required every federal agency that administers a juvenile justice 

program to submit a DDS annually to the Coordinating Council and to the Administrator of 

OJJDP. 

Council Activity: GIS Planning and Program Tools 

Council agencies and other partners have worked over the past 4 years to develop two 

Geographic Information System (GIS) tools with the capacity to display crime problems, 

community and governmental assets including evidence-based programs, and socioeconomic 

factors to help communities, policy makers and program administrators in the prevention and 

control of crime and delinquency. These tools drew upon developmental work undertaken by 

OJJDP to create its model programs database and gang prevention and reduction strategic 

planning tool and were enhanced and populated by a cross agency working team. 

• The Community Guide to Helping America’s Youth integrates a model programs database 

with resource mapping and community data into a Web-based planning tool for 

communities. In 2005, President Bush announced that First Lady Laura Bush would lead a 

new initiative, the Helping America’s Youth (HAY) Initiative, focused on connecting at-risk 

youth with family, school, and their community to help children and teens reach their full 
Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 10 

potential. Nine federal agencies, led by OJJDP and HHS and including seven Council 

member agencies, contributed their knowledge and programs to the HAY initiative by 

developing the Community Guide to Helping America’s Youth. The Guide is a set of webbased tools to help communities build partnerships, assess needs and resources, and select 

from program designs that could be replicated in their community. 

• OJJDP’s Socioeconomic Mapping and Resource Topography Tool (SMART) is a Webbased mapping application that pinpoints local geographic areas of crime and delinquency 

and nearby governmental and community resources to prevent and control it. This tool was 

developed to help federal, state, and local decisionmakers target areas of greatest need and 

allocate resources accordingly. Along with maps, SMART creates tables and graphs to chart 

a wide array of socioeconomic data, such as population, crime, housing, health, and 

mortality. 

White House Task Force Recommendation: Improve coordination of mentoring programs. 

When OJJDP decided to start funding local mentoring efforts in 1995 as part of their goals 

around delinquency prevention and reduced recidivism, the nation’s mentoring landscape 

looked very different than it does today. While mentoring had been a part of the youth services 

landscape for almost 100 years at that point, mostly in the form of Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the 

formal discipline of youth mentoring was somewhat in its infancy. However, the funding that 

OJJDP provided the mentoring field through the Juvenile Mentoring (JUMP) initiative, combined 

with a growing public interest and fresh perspectives from new research, signaled a dramatic 

shift in the growth of youth mentoring.

OJJDP has long supported mentoring programs. Since 1994, OJJDP has received appropriations 

of more than $200 million to support juvenile and youth mentoring programs. In FY 2008, 

OJJDP awarded more than $60 million to support community mentoring programs, including 

funding that addressed the needs of underserved, at-risk youth populations in American Indian 

and Alaska Native communities and Latino communities with youth gang problems. Council 

member HHS is developing a data collection/analysis system for the National Mentoring 

Partnership and has established the Mentoring Children of Prisoners program, while DOL’s 

Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is working closely with CNCS’s Volunteers in 

Service to America (VISTA) program to coordinate mentoring efforts for reentry initiatives.

CNCS is also developing an initiative to increase the number of mentors for disadvantaged 

youth, and has established with Council support the Federal Mentoring Council, a Federal 

interagency coordinating body whose purpose is to increase the number of mentor-mentee pairs 

nationwide.

White House Task Force Recommendation: Support state and local community planning process. 

Through the Shared Youth Vision Partnership, DOL, DOJ, ED, HUD, HHS, U.S. Department of 

Transportation (DOT), CNCS, and U.S. Social Security Administration have combined efforts 

with state agencies to increase efficiency and delivery of services to the nation’s neediest youth 

through follow-up of coordinated state and local policies and approaches. A collaborative 

Internet-based workspace has been developed to enhance state initiative partners and crossstate communication. As noted, the Shared Youth Vision has developed tools to enhance 

collaboration and information dissemination. 

DOL and ED are also collaborating in areas of mutual interest including literacy, GED programs, 

and alternative education. 

Other Council agency assistance to the states includes HHS grants and special assistance. 

HHS convened 12 states to develop performance measures for youth programs. HHS grants 
include grant refunding for nine states through State Youth Development Collaboration Grants 

and co-occurring State Incentive Grants (COSIG) provide funds to states to build or enhance 

service system infrastructure to provide effective, integrated treatment and services for people 

with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders. HHS Strategic Prevention Framework 

(SPF) State Incentive Grants enables states and communities to build prevention capacity and 

infrastructure to reduce substance abuse-related problems, and HHS’s New State Mental 

Health Transformation Grants helps states develop a Comprehensive Mental Health Plan, build 

mental health services infrastructure, and promote implementation of science-based mental 

health interventions 

DOJ has established a National Truancy Prevention Association to serve as truancy 

clearinghouse and help communities build truancy programs, and is developing a computerized 

strategic planning tool to eliminate service gaps and duplication. 

HUD is developing an initiative to assist local housing authorities in pilot cities to help public 

housing residents achieve economic self-sufficiency, while the Office of National Drug Control 

Policy (ONDCP) continues its Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign briefings, community program 

planning and implementation through anti-drug coalition grants, and National Anti-Drug Coalition 

Institute training for community coalitions. 

Collaborative efforts are also enhanced by a CNCS statute that requires each state receiving 

funds from the Corporation to submit a statewide unified comprehensive cross-stream service 

plan that involves all local service programs. 

White House Task Force Recommendation: Expand mentoring programs to special target groups 

such as foster care and migrant youth. HHS is working to increase access to mentoring services 

through its Mentoring Children of Prisoners (MCP) program. Through technical assistance to 

grant recipients, DOL continues to encourage the integration of mentoring components by using 

local mentoring-based organizations, while ED’s mentoring program targets disadvantaged 

middle school youth. 

White House Task Force Recommendation: Increase parent involvement in federal youth 

programs. At DOJ parent groups are required to be part of advisory councils that oversee 

formula grant funding. ONDCP has developed a Media Campaign’s called Parent@Work 

Program. The Runaway and Homeless Youth program, administered by ACF/FYSB at HHS, 

seeks to reunify youth with their parents when it is appropriate.

Through state collaboration projects emphasizing parents and youth as partners in youth 

programming, HHS has increased parent involvement in its youth programs. HHS requires 

support for and inclusion of family and youth partnerships in planning, management, and 

evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their 

Families Program, and promotes and supports states and communities implementing familydriven and youth-guided care. HHS includes college students in Family and Youth Services 

Bureau grant review. HHS is also developing a guide and web site for parents on teen health: 

Family Guide To Keeping Youth Mentally Healthy & Drug Free.

White House Task Force Recommendation Recruit youth for federal grant review panels. 

HHS is including college students in its Family and Youth Services Bureau grant review.

2. The Council has increased knowledge, dissemination, and use of evidence-based 

programs in juvenile justice. 

Council Activity: Federal Mentoring Council 

Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 11 
With support from the Coordinating Council, at the impetus of CNCS and under the joint 

leadership of CNCS and HHS, the interagency Federal Mentoring Council (FMC) was 

established in 2006 to coordinate federal mentoring work and develop new federal initiatives to 

increase the number of mentor-mentee pairs in the nation, particularly those targeting 

disadvantaged youth. The FMC identified gaps in mentoring services, assessed current

knowledge about what works and how to identify and disseminate best practices in the 

mentoring field, and developed the following common description of mentoring for federal 

agencies: “Mentoring is a structured, sustained relationship between an older, more 

experienced person and a young person that is designed to improve one or more of the 

following: family and peer relationships; health and health behaviors; self-esteem and wellbeing; and motivation, attitude, and achievement related to education and/or to work.”

White House Task Force Recommendation: Develop standards for measuring grantee 

performance. Responding to the need for accountability, performance, and research-proven 

best practices, DOJ has developed and is implementing performance standards and more 

empirical evaluations that use higher scientific standards, and implementing an agency-wide 

performance measurement system for all grants focused on outcomes. The performance-based 

standards (PbS) project is one way that OJJDP employs to help states and localities assess and 

strengthen the quality of the custody they exercise over youth in the delinquency system. Also,

DOJ has expanded its evaluation of the seven-city Truancy Reduction Program to build a 

foundation for the design of research-proven best practices. Another effort is the ongoing 

evaluation of model programs to enforce underage drinking laws.

In a similar vein, HHS is developing common terms, instruments, and definitions for MCP 

evaluation and has added and modified performance measures for the Runaway and Homeless 

Youth (RHY) and MCP programs. HHS is encouraging the use of evidence-based practices 

through the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP). 

DOL has developed standard performance measures and definitions specific to offender-serving 

grantees while CNCS applicants self-nominate performance measures, which corporation staff 

approve Grantee funding is tied to performance reporting. CNCS is currently measuring the 

annual performance of AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and Senior Corps. 

White House Task Force Recommendation: Implement grantee-level performance measurement 

guidelines. DOJ’s OJJDP has implemented an agency-wide performance measurement system 

for all grants, including formula, block, earmarked, and discretionary programs that is focused 

on outcomes. The system encompasses a performance measurement web page with specific 

guidelines for grantees, training, and individual assistance, as needed. CNCS has placed new 

requirements for performance measurement in the rules for AmeriCorps. 

HHS requires its grantees to track National Outcomes Measures. The Drug-Free Communities 

Program, a partnership of the Substance and Mental Health Service Administration in HHS and 

the Office of National Drug Control Policy, emphasizes outcome goals in the grant 

announcement. Additionally HHS is studying homeless youth profiles and program caseloads 

to improve outcomes in agencies. DOL’s ETA-funded youth programs have implemented 

standard performance measures and goals for offender-serving grantees, and three common 

measures for all ETA youth programs. ETA revised reporting instructions to collect common 

measures in 2005. 

White House Task Force Recommendation: Build a rigorous and unified disadvantaged youth 

research agenda. OJJDP created and filled a new research coordinator position in 2005. To 

date work has—of necessity—focused on coordinating applicable research programs within 

Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 12 
Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 13 

OJP agencies. DOL is coordinating with OJJDP on a random assignment evaluation of the 

Avon Park Correctional Facility, and plans to evaluate all DOL youth programs. ED is planning 

an out-of-school youth data collection effort. 

HHS has completed its design study for a national evaluation of the Mentoring Children of 

Prisoners (MCP) program, and finished a study of “Promising Strategies to End Youth 

Homelessness.” HHS is evaluating programs for homeless youth, abstinence education 

programs and other approaches to teen pregnancy prevention, and portions of the John Chafee 

Foster Care Independence Program. HHS provided funding for a random-assignment impact 

evaluation of six selected youth offender sites to test the effectiveness of alternative sentencing 

and aftercare services, and provided funding for a labor-oriented data analysis of work 

undertaken by the Northwestern Juvenile Project on behalf of DOJ. 

CNS has funded random assignment evaluation of Parent Drug Corps and has solicited 

proposals to fund random-assignment evaluation of AmeriCorps. CNCS is also involved in a 

random-assignment, multiyear longitudinal study of AmeriCorps participants, analyzing a 

CNCS-funded survey of youth volunteering. 

White House Task Force Recommendation: Improve data collected on the well-being of families.

DOJ and HHS both participate in the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, 

and DOJ participate in the planning meetings of the National Child Study. HHS has produced a 

chart book of indicators of social context of families. DOL has expanded offender-oriented data 

collection templates to include information related to housing, homelessness, foster care, 

independent living, temporary shelter, etc.

3. The Council has elevated the importance of a comprehensive juvenile justice agenda 

at the federal level, and achieved an increased alignment of goals between the juvenile 

justice and other systems at all levels of government. 

Council Activity: Interagency Agreements (IAAs) 

Through OJJDP, the Council has entered into two rounds of IAAs to leverage member agencies 

resources, including those that established the Federal Mentoring Council and supported 

regional technical assistance workshops under the Shared Youth Vision initiative. (See 

appendix for a listing of all the IAAs.) Additionally, an agreement between OJJDP and 

SAMHSA supports joint development by federal, state, and local authorities of guidelines for 

working with youth offenders in the areas of screening, assessment, referral, and treatment. The 

goal of this partnership is to better coordinate investment of federal, state, and local efforts to 

build resiliency and facilitate recovery among youth at risk or suffering from substance abuse or 

mental health disorders. Major activities under this agreement include: 

• OJJDP and SAMHSA convened a series of one-day summit meetings to bring together 

practitioners and researchers who focus on prevention and treatment of substance 

abuse and mental health disorders within community settings and within juvenile justice 

settings to share common knowledge, instrumentation, and information about 

approaches that are working in both settings. 

• OJJDP and SAMHSA held a series of partnership meetings between the two agencies. 

• SAMHSA held a planning forum on tribal juvenile justice and substance abuse/mental 

health issues as a means of improving policy coordination in that arena. 
Outcomes of the first two activities included two new joint grant programs – one in partnership 

with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation involves juvenile drug court grants, the other is a 

joint OJJDP/CSAT Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (BIRT) program for youth – and 

foundational discussions toward development, likely in FY 09, of a single application, single 

review grant program for juvenile drug courts and treatment services. 

As a result of the tribal planning forum (November 2006), SAMHSA hosted first Policy Academy 

on Co-occurring Substance Use and Mental Disorders for Native Communities (September 

2007) including tribal youth in Wellness Courts and is continuing to work with Tribes to 

implement their policy changes. 

White House Task Force Recommendation: Target youth who are in public care, such as foster 

care homes and juvenile justice institutions. DOJ has implemented a Juvenile Ready4Work 

Initiative, and developed a faith-based juvenile corrections reentry program with the State of 

Florida while ED has an ongoing project targeted to this issue, Oregon’s Social Learning Center 

Treatment Foster Care Program. Also ongoing are ED Title I grants to law enforcement 

agencies. ED is investigating a possible collaboration with HHS on youth aging out of foster 

care. 

HHS is also focused on studies of youth who are aging out of foster care, and an evaluation 

assessment of discharge/transition planning as homeless prevention strategy. The focus on 

children in juvenile justice and child welfare settings is a priority in the Comprehensive 

Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program. 

In response to this recommendation, DOL awarded five foster care youth demonstration grants 

for two years. The agency entered into an evaluation partnership with Casey Family Programs, 

which also provided the funding to the sites for the third year and sustainability. Results have 

been positive: Twenty-three percent of the youth attained a GED or high school diploma, 17 

percent enrolled in post-secondary education, and 35 percent had jobs – figures all well above 

the averages for youth who’ve been in foster care. 

DOL has more than $155.4 million invested in a youth offender portfolio that involves 48 

grantees covering approximately 133 sites that provide a variety of workforce development 

services to at-risk and offender youth. The newest addition to the Youth Offender Portfolio was 

awarded on July 1, 2005. Sixteen grants were awarded a total of $15.6 million to serve youth 

who have been touched by the juvenile justice system to prepare them for entering high-growth, 

high-demand industry occupations. These grants are located in 11 states and served 

approximately 3,200 youth by the end of the grant period in 2006. 

White House Task Force Recommendation: Target youth with a high number of factors putting 

them at risk, such as children of incarcerated parents and migrant youth. The programs to reduce 

the risk of particularly vulnerable children include a wide range of assistance on many fronts 

including DOJ’s Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Initiative and its Gang Reduction 

Program, ED’s Reading First Initiative, and ONDCP’s student drug testing in schools. 

HHS programs range from those that work to improve outcomes for migrant youth, children of 

prisoners (through mentoring programs) and Native American youth to refining data collection 

on homeless youth programs and the previously mentioned data collection on youth aging out of 

foster care. HHS is developing an initiative to achieve substance abuse resiliency and recovery 

response. Access to Recovery includes improving access and outcomes for substance abuse 

treatment for parents and adolescents. HHS is also participating in a federal review group to 

assess the feasibility of administering mental health screenings in various service systems. 

Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 14 
Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 15 

DOL is designing an initiative to help migrant farm worker families. DOL also issued a Training 

and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) 28-05 in May 2006 entitled “Expanding ETA’s 

Vision for the Delivery of Youth Services under WIA to include Indian and Native American 

Youth and Youth with Disabilities” this has served to include Indian and Native American youth 

and youth with disabilities as part of the neediest youth populations. 

Special Projects: Federal Coordination in the Gulf Coast Region 

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Council directed attention to coordination of federal 

resources for at-risk youth in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Activities include: 

• An assessment of the needs of the juvenile courts and youth-serving agencies and 

consultation to the local and state agencies to help them access available resources. 

• Building upon its Shared Youth Vision platform, DOL awarded a $15 million National 

Emergency Grant (NEG) focusing on out-of-school youth in the New Orleans area. The 

grant program was designed specifically to support at-risk youth and was supported by 

federal collaboration in the region. In January 2008, DOL sponsored the “New Orleans 

Region Mixer” to engage all the Shared Youth Vision federal partners along with their 

state and local counterparts. The meeting focused on launching the NEG activities, 

asset mapping, and strengthening communication between federal, state, and local 

agencies, and across systems. 

Coordinating Council: Summary and Looking Forward 

Under the leadership of this Council, much has been undertaken to improve delinquency 

prevention programs through joint initiatives and coordinated resource deployment. With its 

sponsorship of the first national Council conference, its institution in FY05 of inter agency 

agreements designed specifically to support member agencies that undertake collaborative and 

joint work, and a round two set of IAAs in FY 08, its support for many coordinated and joint 

activities and development of the Comprehensive Communities Initiative tool kit, this Council 

has strengthened the infrastructure for joint planning and coordinated expenditure. Leveraging 

of resources delivers tangible value on behalf of taxpayers and responds to requests from the 

field. The update of the Delinquency Development Statement report, which delineates the 

delinquency-related activities of member agencies as well as their budgets, planning cycles and 

program priorities contributes to this foundation. This is work that is correlated strongly with the 

receptivity of Council and member agency leadership, and will continually need to be 

strengthened and deepened. 

Recommendations 

Therefore, based on the continuing goals and mission of the Coordinating Council, the 

framework of their earlier recommendations, and recent work of the Council and the federal 

agencies, the Council makes the following recommendations: 

1. Shared Youth Vision (SYV): The Council recommends member agencies adopt the SYV 

approach to joint federal-state-local coordination and collaboration. This interagency program 
Coordinating Council 2008 Report, Page 16 

led by the Department of Labor responds directly to the White House Task Force 

Recommendation, “Support the state and local community planning process.” 

2. Federal Mentoring Council: The Council recommends Congressional support for the 

continuation of the Federal Mentoring Council. This interagency council, co-chaired by the 

Corporation for National and Community Service and the Department of Health and Human 

Services, responds directly to the White House Task Force Recommendation, “Improve 

coordination of mentoring programs.” 

3. Federal Partnership Project: The Council recommends the adoption and use of the 

resources/toolkits by federal agencies in their development of comprehensive community 

programs and the use of the Delinquency Development Statement report to facilitate joint 

program planning by member agencies. This interagency work led by the Department of Justice 

responds directly to the White House Task Force Recommendation, “Support the state and local 

community planning process.” 

4. Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs: The Council recommends that this body, 

recently created by Executive Order 13459, coordinate with the Coordinating Council. This 

interagency effort led by the Department of HHS responds directly to the White House Task 

Force Recommendation, “Support the state and local community planning process.” 

5. Socioeconomic Mapping and Resource Topography Tool (SMART): The Council 

recommends the consistent use and promotion of this data and mapping technology by federal 

agencies in their program development and community support work. This initiative led by the 

Department of Justice responds to the White House Task Force Recommendation, “Support the 

state and local community planning process.”