Circuit 11 Juvenile Justice Board Retreat

The C11 Juvenile Justice Board held its board retreat in December 2011 which turned out approximately 60 participants. Participants included Circuit 11 Juvenile Justice Board members, Representative Cynthia Stafford, Representative Luis Garcia, Mayor Phillip Stoddard, Mayor Myra Taylor, DJJ Prevention Providers, The Children’s Trust, representatives from the school Board, representatives from the Juvenile Services Department, various police municipalities, Miami-Dade Public Schools administrators and community-based organizations. Probation staff also assisted with facilitating breakout sessions. Positive feedback was received from those in attendance.

The purpose of the retreat was to:

• Inform the attendees of the function of the Juvenile Justice Board and to make the community aware of its initiatives,
• Share Circuit 11 data and trends,
• Identify the areas of strength in Circuit 11 DJJ,
• Identify challenges in achieving results in Circuit 11 DJJ,
• Identify gaps in services for youth and families,
• Update current strategic plan utilized to guide Circuit 11 DJJ initiatives, and
• Share the 2012 Legislative Agenda.

Among other information, the recent DJJ Delinquency in Florida’s Schools was included in the packet of information provided to the participants.

The breakout sessions topics were: 

• Prevention,
• Youth Violence,
• Legislative Development, and
• Education and Literacy.

The breakout sessions focused on data to determine what the data tells about how things are progressing in the area; strengths currently in place that contribute to help things get better; barriers and challenges that have negatively impacted the topic of discussion, identification of action steps necessary to achieve measurable results in each of the topic areas; to develop strategies/action recommendations. The recommendations from the breakout sessions coincide with the current Circuit Board Prevention Plan Goals.