Juvenile Justice & Youth Development
Training & Events
This page provides information about juvenile justice and youth development conferences and training sessions sponsored by the Office of Policy and Management and the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, including descriptions and registration materials for upcoming events.
Upcoming Events
REGISTER NOW
Patrol Officer Curriculum
EFFECTIVE POLICE INTERACTIONS WITH YOUTH
Effective Police Interactions with Youth is a one-day training that provides patrol officers with information to better understand youth behavior and with practical strategies for interacting with young people in positive ways. Over 2,100 persons have attended 114 sessions conducted in Connecticut since 2007 and the curriculum has been shared in 24 other states with both large (Chicago and Denver) and small (Fargo, North Dakota) police departments. The date for Connecticut officers in spring 2017 is:
Friday, June 30, 2017
All training held from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Courtyard by Marriott, 4 Sebethe Drive, Cromwell. No registration fee. To register officers for the training, the following information should be emailed to valerie.lamotte@ct.gov:
1) First and last name of trainee
2) Title (e.g. Officer, Sgt.)
3) Email address
4) Department and
5) Training date.
For more information, go to CTJustStart.org or contact Ms. Valerie LaMotte at 860-418-6316 or valerie.lamotte@ct.gov
Past Events
The following conferences have already occurred and are listed here for informational purposes only.
Ninth Annual Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance Fall Retreat – The 9th Annual Fall Retreat of the Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance was held on November 21 & 22, 2013. For 2013 the focus of the retreat was on the issues of literacy and attendance, and chronic non-attendance. Sharon Faber was our guest speaker. Dr. Faber, an international consultant and literacy specialist, made two presentations-"Reading, Self-Esteem and School Attendance Go Hand-in-Hand" and "Kids Who Can Read Are Our Greatest Asset!" In addition to Dr. Faber, there were presentations from the the Court Support Services Division, the Commission on Children and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and a panel on chronic non-attendance featuring the school districts of Hartford, New Britain and Vernon. The retreat was rated as useful or somewhat useful and excellent or good by everyone in attendance.
Effective School Staff Interactions with Students and Police – Eight sessions of Effective School Staff Interactions with Students and Police were held in 2013. This curriculum is directed to school personnel, particularly middle and high school teachers and administrators. 283 school staff were trained.
Effective Police Interactions with Youth – Six sessions of Effective Police Interactions with Youth were held in 2013 with 108 Connecticut officers trained. In addition, training was conducted in 2013 in Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Utah.
Eighth Annual Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance Fall Retreat – The 8th Annual Fall Retreat of the Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance was held on December 5 & 6, 2012. The keynote speaker was Debbie Silver, a former teacher, staff development instructor, and university professor who has given presentations around the world (including 49 states, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia). Dr. Silver's presentations utilized humor and thoughtful insights to remind the audience of how important educators are in the lives of children. In addition to Dr. Silver, there were presentations from the State Department of Education (on the new definitions of "excused" and "unexcused" absences), from the Court Support Services Division on juvenile probation, and from three Consortium school districts--New Britain, Rocky Hill and Vernon. Several attendees characterized this retreat as the best one to date. Everyone rated the retreat as useful or somewhat useful, and 97% rated it excellent or good.
Effective School Staff Interactions with Students and Police – Seven sessions of Effective School Staff Interactions with Students and Police were held from October 2012 through December 2012 with 149 school staff trained. This new curriculum addresses how to use disciplinary data and protocols with police to ensure a consistent response to student misbehavior, particularly with minority students, without changing school policies. Solutions offered include both system and individual actions. Topics covered include the juvenile justice system, youth behavior and the value of building positive relationships with students, a four-step process for interacting with distressed students, and suggested behaviors and options for four levels of intervention with misbehaving students. The curriculum is for middle and high school personnel and is taught by a school staff person and a police officer.
Effective Police Interactions with Youth – Fourteen sessions of Effective Police Interactions with Youth were held from August 2011 through December 2012 with 412 Connecticut officers trained. In addition, training has been conducted for other states including Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia.
Seventh Annual Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance Fall Retreat – The 7th Annual Fall Retreat of the Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance was held on December 7 & 8, 2011. The agenda included an overview of the 2010/2011 school year attendance data collected by the Consortium; and presentations on USD #2 by Howard Haberman, on the new court intake process by Julia O’Leary, and the evaluation results of the 2010/2011 School Attendance projects by Ronald Sabatelli. The first keynote presentation was from the 2012 MetLife/NASSP National High School Principal of the Year Michael Foran, Principal of New Britain High School. In addition, there were three presentations from out-of-state guest, Anthony (Tony) J. Limoges, Principal of South San Francisco High School. Evaluation results showed all respondents rated the retreat as excellent or good and useful or somewhat useful.
Children, Youth & Police: 17th Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies – The Seventeenth Annual Children, Youth and the Police Conference was held on November 22, 2011 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Conference Center in Cromwell. This long-standing annual event was attended by 344 police, juvenile probation and parole, and school staff. The focus of the conference was school safety with presentations from the “I Love U Guys” Foundation. The featured speaker, John-Michael Keyes, talked about the creation and products of the Foundation. The death of his daughter Emily five years ago at the hands of a gunman at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado compelled Mr. Keyes to bring his professional expertise to the arena of school safety. In addition, John McDonald, Executive Director of Safety, Security and Emergency Planning for the Jefferson County Schools in Colorado gave a debrief of the 2010 Deer Creek Middle School shooting. Both speakers addressed the reunification of students and parents following an incident at school and endorsed the Standard Response Protocol (SRP), a common-language crisis response program for schools available at no cost at http://iluvuguys.org/srp.html.
Effective Police Interactions with Youth – Eighteen sessions of Effective Police Interactions with Youth were held from August 2010 through March 2011 with 305 Connecticut officers trained. In addition, training has been conducted for other states including Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.
Police Compliance Training – A police compliance training was held the afternoon of March 11, 2011 because of concerns with the reporting of police departments on the deinstitutionalization of status offenders, separation, and jail removal mandates for compliance monitoring. Each department was invited to send one representative and to turn in their 6-month compliance report at the training. A total of 68 persons from 61 police departments attended. Valerie LaMotte, staff to the JJAC, presented on the mandates and reporting requirements; Fran Carino from the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney discussed state laws concerning police holding of juveniles; and Andre Parker from the Waterford Police Department, who conducts police site visits for the JJAC, talked about site visit protocols and data verification. Of those responding to the evaluation form, 18% rated the training “excellent” and 74% rated it “good.” Everybody found it “very useful” or “useful.” Many respondents commented that the information was already known, but that the session was a very useful refresher.
Sixth Annual Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance Fall Retreat – Representatives from 25 of the 28 school district members of the Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance and state agency staff (a total of 81 people) met on Thursday & Friday, December 2 & 3, 2010 for their annual retreat. The agenda included an overview of the 2009/2010 school year attendance data collected by the Consortium; a look at the Connecticut Education Data and Research (CEDaR) portal with Mark Vocca; presentations on local projects and a national conference by staff from school districts in Ansonia, Hamden and Region 10; small group discussions by job title; and two presentations from the keynote speaker, Monte Selby. Dr. Selby used input from attendees to create a “song” about school attendance, and he presented a picture of what educators can do in classrooms, offices and hallways to have a positive impact on student attendance. Evaluation results showed everyone rated the retreat as excellent or good and useful or somewhat useful.
Children, Youth & Police: 16th Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies – About 383 persons from police, school, juvenile court and juvenile corrections agencies attended the 16th annual conference on November 23, 2010 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cromwell. This year’s conference focused on cyber bullying, sexting and an update on Connecticut juvenile law. Attorney Fran Carino from the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney presented his annual update on state juvenile justice laws. Mr. Scott Driscoll from Internet Safety Concepts was the speaker on sexting and cyber bullying. We also learned about the importance of humor in our everyday lives from guest speaker Dr. Joyce Saltman. Of the 273 attendees who submitted evaluation forms, 99% rated the conference as excellent or good and 99% also rated it as useful.
BIDDERS CONFERENCE on School/Police Just.Start Program – The Office of Policy and Management (OPM) and its Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (JJAC) announced a new funding opportunity for 2011 called the School/Police Just.Start Program. Successful applicant agencies under this program will have to undertake two complementary activities to increase diversion from the juvenile justice system and reduce arrests in schools: 1) customize, implement and test a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the school and the police; and 2) increase preventive and/or intervention strategies. A mandatory bidders conference was held the morning of Thursday, October 7, 2010 with 117 persons from 40 cities and towns in attendance. The agenda included an overview of the new program, and presentations from two guest speakers—Judge Brian Huff from Alabama and Judge Steven Teske from Georgia.
Effective Police Interactions with Youth – Eleven sessions of this patrol officer training were held from November 2009 through April 2010 with 222 officers trained. Of the evaluation forms for 114 patrol officers trained who reported no experience as a youth officer or School Resource Officer, 91% rated the training as "very useful" or "useful," and 74% strongly agreed that "I would recommend this training to fellow officers."
Fifth Annual Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance Fall Retreat – The Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance offerred the 5th Annual Retreat on Thursday & Friday, December 3 & 4, 2009. Eighty-one representatives from the majority of the twenty-eight member school districts along with JJAC members were in attendance. The retreat began at 2 p.m. on Thursday with a brief review of the 2008/2009 data and data collection process from Ms. Valerie LaMotte, staff to the JJAC and the Consortium, and Karl Adams, technology consultant to the Consortium. Then Ms. Rowena White and Ms. Rebekah Harriman from White Light Advertising discussed how to communicate data and issues with your community. Professor Ronald Sabatelli and Ms. Kristi Palmer from the University of Connecticut Center for Applied Research discussed preliminary results from their evaluation of the four projects under the School Attendance Program that operated from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2009. Ms. Marsha Casey, a social studies teacher at Vinal Technical High School located in Middletown, presented on using “Play By the Rules” in the school setting. The day ended with what all agreed was the highlight of the retreat, a presentation by Professor Joyce Saltman from Southern Connecticut State University on “Laughter: Rx for Survival.” Day two featured a second presentation from Professor Saltman along with presentations from three school districts on their current grant projects, a presentation on building positive relations between youth and police, table group discussions to allow members to share information with each other, and a presentation and discussion of updating the Consortium’s information on-line. Overall, 75% of the attendees rated the conference as excellent and 25% as very good, and 68% rated it useful and 32% as somewhat useful.
<="">Children, Youth & Police: 15th Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies – The Fifteenth Annual Children, Youth and the Police Conference was held on November 24, 2009 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Conference Center in Cromwell. This very popular JJAC annual event was attended by 390 representatives from state and local law enforcement, juvenile probation and parole, and schools as well as other public and private agencies that serve youth. The conference began with a presentation by Professor Bernard James from Pepperdine University School of Law on constitutional and Connecticut law concerning juvenile justice reform and sharing of information between schools and juvenile justice agencies. Ms. Ponya Parks, Executive Director of the Alabama Center for Law & Civic Education (ACLCE) followed with a presentation on “Play By the Rules,” a model for teaching state-specific law to middle school students. Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Fran Carino provided an update on Connecticut juvenile law. The conference ended with Professor James continuing his presentation from the morning. Overall, 44% of the evaluations rated the conference as excellent or very good and 65% rated it as useful or very useful.
<="">Effective Police Interactions with Youth – Ten sessions of this daylong training for patrol officers were offered in May/June/August 2009. A total of 196 officers attended. Overall, 86% rated the training as "very useful" or "useful" and all agreed that the training identified steps that officers can take to facilitate positive interactions with youth. Some officer comments included: "It was taught by police officers so the instructors understand the realities of dealing with youth as police officers," "It added the view of police from the youth's eyes," "One of the better training sessions I've had after 29 years."
<="">Fourth Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance Fall Retreat – Representatives from the 28 school district members of the Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance and statewide agency people convened in Westbrook on Thursday and Friday, December 4 & 5, 2008. Thursday's agenda focused on Connecticut laws, policies and practices on attendance and school suspension with several speakers from the Connecticut State Department of Education. Friday's agenda featured four out of state educators (Jason Sutton from Meade County Schools in Kentucky, David Herold and Barbara Winters from Allamakee Community School District in Iowa, and Timothy Cochran from North Kirkwood Middle School in Missouri) as well as Judge Thomas P. Brunnock talking about the Waterbury Probate Court Truancy Model. Of the 99 persons who attended, 44 completed an evaluation form. All but two rated the retreat as excellent or good and as either useful or somewhat useful.
<="">Children, Youth & Police: 14th Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies – The 14th annual event attracted 326 police, educators and juvenile justice personnel to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cromwell on November 25, 2008 to hear about teen traffic safety. Featured speakers were Steven R. Casstevens--Assistant Chief of Police with the Hoffman Estates Police Department in Illinois and member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Highway Safety and DUI committees, Sandy Spavone--Executive Director of NOYS (National Organizations for Youth Safety), Elise Strahan--Senior at Wayne High School in Huber Heights Ohio and board member of NOYS, and Ed Hedge--Law Enforcement Liaison with the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The Honorable Robert Ward, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles, opened the conference by discussing the rationale behind the new state laws on graduated drivers licenses and the data that documents how often the inexperience of new drivers leads to tragic consequences.
<="">Effective Police Interactions with Youth – Four sessions of this daylong training for patrol officers were offered in November/December 2007. A total of 71 officers attended. Overall, 85% of the attendees rated the training as "excellent" or "very good" and 100% as "useful." 97% said they would recommend this training to fellow officers. Some officer comments included: "More patrol officers need this training," "All entry-level patrol officers should have this to dispell stereotyping of youth," "I realize that there are other officers out there with the same problems that I encounter with youth."
<="">Children, Youth & Police: 13th Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies – Approximately 488 police, school and juvenile justice personnel made their way to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cromwell on November 20, 2007 to attend this 13th annual event. Featured speakers were Vivan J. Carlson, Associate Professor at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford on Aggression Among Girls; Gregg Champlin, Natural Hazards Specialist at the New Hampshire Emergency Management agency on School Emergency Response Planning; and Vladimir Sergevnin, Manager and Editor at the Illinois Law Enforcement Training & Standards Board on the Russian School Tragedy at Beslan.
<="">Third Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance Fall Retreat– On November 1 & 2, 2007 the Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance held its third fall retreat at Water's Edge in Westbrook. Over 85 persons attended the event, which included a number of presentations and time for networking. The first day began with an overview of the four new Program and Evaluation grants in Ansonia, Stonington, Thompson and Windham and a discussion of the evaluation design by University of Connecticut professors Stephen Anderson and Ronald Sabatelli. Then, Dr. Scott Shuler from the State Department of Education presented on the High School Redesign Initiative. The day concluded with guest speaker Buell Snyder, who has over 40 years of experience working as a teacher and administrator in Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky and is a nationally-recognized leader in the areas of alternative education and drop-out prevention. Day two included a presentation on changes to the FWSN laws by the Honorable Christine Keller, Chief Administrative Judge for Juvenile Matters, Connecticut Judicial Branch; a presentation on suspension and expulsion data by John Rogers from the State Department of Education; and break out sessions for program and technology members of the Consortium.
<="" seffective="" interactions="" with="">Effective Police Interactions with Youth – The purpose of this daylong training is to provide patrol officers with information to better understand youth behavior and with practical strategies for interacting with young people in positive ways. A total of 301 patrol officers each attended one of 21 sessions of the “Effective Police Interactions with Youth” training in March and April 2007. Trainees completed a pre- and post-test questionnaire and an additional 169 patrol officers, who did not complete the training, filled out the questionnaire during the same time period. Pre- and post-test results revealed that the training group’s knowledge scores increased significantly after completing the training. Also patrol officers who completed the training reported significant changes in their attitudes regarding young people and indicated a high degree of satisfaction with the training.
Children, Youth & Police: 12th Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies – The 12th annual conference for Connecticut police personnel attracted a record crowd of 560 people on November 21, 2006 at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell. The featured speaker, Michael Dorn, is one of the world’s best known, highly respected and most credentialed school safety experts and serves as the Executive Director for Safe Havens International Inc., a non-profit safety center. Michael Dorn began the conference with a demonstration and talk on weapons screening. He spent much of the day discussing school safety policies and practices, and concluded with a moving talk, “Weakfish,” which used a case study of a chronically bullied child to show how patterns of bullying can occur, and demonstrated how crucial adults can be in the lives of children. Ninety-five percent of evaluation respondents rated the conference as excellent or very good and as useful or very useful.
Second Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance Fall Retreat – The second fall retreat of the Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance featured guest speaker Jim Lawson, a public school teacher for Bay District Schools in Panama City, Florida (2,100+ students). Mr. Lawson presented his creative, award-winning and easy to implement in-school suspension “model for structure.” Representatives from 23 of the 27 school district members of the Consortium as well as statewide agency people—a total of 63 individuals—participated at the retreat, which was held in Westbrook on October 26 and 27, 2006. Retreat evaluation results were very high with 98% rating the retreat as excellent or very good and 100% rating it as useful or somewhat useful.
6th Annual Connecticut Youth Funders Conference – A group of 34 public and private sector funders participated in the 6th Annual Connecticut Youth Funders Conference held on
Children, Youth & Police: 11th Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies – Over 350 persons from police, court and juvenile corrections agencies attended the 11th annual conference on November 22, 2005 at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell. This year’s conference focused on how the physical and social development of youth affects their thoughts, attitudes, actions, and reactions to police. Cindy Mason presented on youth gangs—particularly suburban gangs, and Jeff Bostic covered the new brain research and its implications for police work. The conference concluded with an interactive session on state juvenile justice laws with State Representatives Farr, Hamm, Lawlor and Walker.
Identification of Disproportionate Incident Reporting (A Management Tool) Software & Training – The Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (JJAC) sponsored a half-day training on
Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance Fall Retreat – Representatives from all 22 school district members of the Connecticut Consortium on School Attendance met with statewide agency people—a total of 50 participants—in Westbrook from
5th Annual Connecticut Youth Funders Conference – This annual statewide event is only open to representatives of public and private youth funding organizations. Over 50 funders traveled to Water’s Edge Business Center in Westbrook on September 1, 2005 to hear Dr. Mavis Sanders from Johns Hopkins University talk about teens, parents and schools; Dr. Stephen Anderson and Dr. Ronald Sabatelli from the University of Connecticut review six years of their youth outcome evaluation work; Dr. William Graustein, a Connecticut philanthropist, discuss developing young leaders; and State Representative Denise Merrill explain the state legislative budget process and a new legislative Results Based Accountability initiative.
Police in the Classroom – Four two-day training sessions were offered in early May and August 2005 that focused on equipping School Resource Officers and other police personnel who teach youth in the classroom or in after school settings with the skills needed to perform in the role of teacher. The ALL POLICE session covered the Community Works curriculum, which challenges young people to take part in making their communities safe and educates young people about crime and violence prevention. Community Works is appropriate for use by schools, community groups, youth agencies and neighborhood youth centers as well as police officers who are ready to help youth get engaged in their community. The SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER sessions covered two curricula—Street Law for School Resource Officers and Homicide: Life on the Street. Street Law for SROs includes 15 classroom lesson plans on topics such as the myths and realities of police work, arrest law, students’ rights in schools, vandalism, and alcohol. Homicide: Life on the Street includes 6 video segments from the award-winning TV show and lesson plans on bullying, use of force, and effective witnesses. For more information: www.streetlaw.org/sro.asp.
Attending to Attendance: Second Annual Connecticut Conference on Improving School Attendance – On
Children, Youth & Police: 10TH Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies – The 10th annual police conference began with a video presentation developed by the JJAC entitled “Conversations with Youth and Police in Connecticut.” The featured speaker was Dale Yeager from SERAPH, who stressed that good police work involves keeping up-to-date on problems and trends. The afternoon was lead by a team from the FBI’s Innocent Images Task Force that discussed responding to computer crimes and concluded the afternoon with a case presentation of United States vs. Hopkins. Over 280 persons attended this event which was held on
ATTENDANCE MATTERS! Advanced Workshop on Data-Driven Practices - This workshop attracted over 80 participants on
4th Annual Connecticut Youth Funders Conference – This statewide conference was only open to representatives of public and private organizations active in funding programs for youth ages 12 to 18 years. Forty-four funders convened at the Water’s Edge Business Center in Westbrook on
Keeping Kids Safe and Smart: Connecticut After School Summit - Over 235 people joined together on June 4, 2004 to inform policymakers and decision-makers as to the needs and benefits of after school programming and to foster relationships among state and local providers, planners, and funders to ensure that all children have access to high quality, affordable after school programs. The day began with greetings from Connecticut youth through a video presentation; opening remarks from State Senator Eileen Daily-JJAC member, Dr. George Coleman-State Department of Education, and Commissioner Darlene Dunbar-Department of Children and Families; and a tribute to the memory of State Representative Anthony Tercyak accepted by his son State Representative Peter Tercyak. The keynote presentation by Dr. Beth Miller focused on her report for the Nellie Mae Education Foundation on Critical Hours: Afterschool Programs and Educational Success. A panel on Connecticut perspectives and lunch table discussions were followed by two breakout sessions with 14 workshops. 95% of evaluation respondents rated the summit useful or somewhat useful.
Attending to Attendance: Students Can't Succeed If They Aren't In School - This statewide conference for schools and communities on improving school attendance was held on
Children, Youth & Police: Ninth Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies - Over 300 persons from police, juvenile probation and other agencies interested in youth issues attended this 9th annual conference for Connecticut police personnel on November 25, 2003 at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center in Cromwell. This year's conference addressed current national and Connecticut issues pertaining to juvenile justice. The morning was devoted to learning how to recognize bullying behavior and intervene on behalf of children who are bullied. The keynote speaker, Randy Wiler, a nationally recognized expert on bullying prevention, was very favorably received with 62% of conference evaluation respondents rating him "Excellent." The afternoon offered four workshops-extremist groups in Connecticut and youth recruitment; more bullying prevention; DEA resources for working with youth; and a panel of state experts led by Judge Michael Mack, Chief Administrative Judge for Juvenile Matters, on 16 & 17-year-old Youth In Crisis and criminal offenders.
3rd Annual Connecticut Youth Funders Conference - Over 50 youth funders attended this conference at the Rocky Hill Marriott on
Assessing Outcomes For Youth Programs - During 2003, two half day sessions on 1) More on Defining & Measuring Youth Outcomes and 2) Collecting Useful Process Data were each offered three times in Cromwell, Stratford, and Windsor. Presenters were Dr. Stephen A. Anderson and Dr. Ronald M. Sabatelli, professors at the University of Connecticut, who authored Assessing Outcomes in Child and Youth Programs, a handbook on evaluating planned program interventions. The training focused on the easy-to-use handbook, which includes variables identified from the literature, copies of recommended instruments and sections on how to implement evaluation strategies and analyze data. These sessions were geared to those who have already attended the full day session on Assessing Outcomes for Youth Programs or who were familiar with youth evaluation concepts.
Children, Youth & Police: Eighth Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies – This conference for Connecticut police personnel attracted 287 persons on
Youth Development Through State and Local Action: Statewide Conference – This conference for community and school direct service providers, and planners, trainers, advocates and funders who work with, or on behalf of, youth ages 12 to 18 drew 270 attendees to the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center in Cromwell on September 18, 2002. The conference featured Karen Pittman, Executive Director of the Forum for Youth Investment and showcased youth-adult partnerships from local, regional and state levels in 24 workshop sessions. Representatives from the states of Alaska, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont discussed state roles in youth development in both a morning panel and workshops.
2nd Annual Connecticut Youth Funders Conference – This statewide conference was only open to representatives of public and private organizations active in funding programs for youth 12 to 18. Sixty-seven funders convened at the Water’s Edge Business Center in Westbrook on September 5, 2002 to learn about the latest national research out of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine’s Community Programs to Promote Youth Development and heard from Connecticut leaders –– George Coleman, United Way of Connecticut; Chris Hall, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; Thomas A. Kirk, Jr., Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Michael A. Mack, Chief Administrative Judge, Juvenile Matters; and Ted Sergi, Commissioner of Education.
Schools and Police Working Together: Statewide Conference – This conference for Connecticut school and police personnel featured one of the most highly rated speakers that the JJAC has ever brought to Connecticut. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman spoke to 240 persons in attendance on "Lessons from Jonesboro, Littleton and Vietnam: How Kids are Learning to Kill and Learning to Like It" on
Children, Youth & Police: Seventh Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies – A conference for Connecticut police personnel that attracted over 210 people on December 6, 2001 at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center, Cromwell. The featured speaker, a former perpetrator and self-proclaimed former skinhead and fifteen-year member of the neo-Nazi White Supremacy Movement, now works for the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and talked about the importance of positive police/youth relationships. Workshops addressed raves and drugs in Connecticut, the changing role of police officers in the school and investigating gang crime.
Connecticut Youth Funders Conference - A statewide conference for representatives of public and private organizations active in funding programs for youth ages 12 to 18. The conference focused on applying positive youth development principles to youth work. The agenda included national and Connecticut-based youth development experts and featured 25 youth presenters. Approximately 65 Connecticut youth funders attended the
Minority Youth and the Law: A Connecticut Conference on Minorities in the Juvenile Justice System - A statewide conference for police, court, Department of Children and Families, school, community agency and other personnel who work with youth in Connecticut. The conference addressed how Connecticut's juvenile justice system is influenced by the race and ethnicity of its youth based on a JJAC-sponsored study, A Reassessment of Minority Overrepresentation in Connecticut's Juvenile Justice System. Approximately 300 people attended this conference on
When Your Students are in Trouble with the Law - A conference for educational leaders, school administrators, School Resource Officers, and other school personnel who work with the juvenile court and Department of Children and Families. Over 320 people attended this conference on
Children, Youth & Police: Sixth Annual Statewide Conference For All Connecticut Police Agencies - A conference for Connecticut police personnel that focused on youth community policing and enforcement of the underage drinking laws. Over 200 people attended this conference on
Forums on Minority Overrepresentation in the Connecticut Juvenile Justice System - The JJAC sponsored six public forums for Connecticut police, court, Department of Children and Families, school, and community agency personnel to learn about a study of minority overrepresentation and share their perspectives on the subject. The forum discussions were based on a JJAC-sponsored study, A Reassessment of Minority Overrepresentation in Connecticut's Juvenile Justice System. The forums were held throughout the State in October and November of 2000 with 160 people participating.
Connecticut Conference on Improving School Attendance - A conference for Connecticut school, police, court, Department of Children and Families, and community agency personnel that refocused attention on the importance of school attendance. The positive approach of this conference on school attendance (rather than truancy, suspension and expulsion) emphasized the abilities of Connecticut's youth. The conference was held