We are pleased to tell you in this issue about the recommendations of the Blueprint Commission and the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice for reforming Florida’s juvenile justice system. We started down this road almost three years ago when we pulled together a diverse group of Floridians to craft a new vision and mission for the juvenile justice system with the aim of changing the fundamental principles of the system. Last year, the department adopted a new mission statement that we embraced, one that both protects public safety and provides the help and guidance young people need to stay out of trouble and become productive adults. The Blueprint Commission was charged with making recommendations to guide the department to live up to this new mission statement. Each step along the way has been exciting and promising. Even though our state, like many, faces fiscal challenges, we are hopeful that the governor and legislature will follow through on the commission’s recommendations.

In this issue, you’ll also read about two of our innovative grantees that are trying to improve the juvenile justice system too. The Boy Scouts' JAKE program steers first-time, non-violent offenders away from courts by teaching good decision-making and requiring community service. And Barry University's Law School in Orlando recently established the Juvenile Justice Center to better train lawyers who represent indigent children in delinquency hearings.

Joe Clark

Boy Scouts' JAKE Program Keeps Kids Out of Court and Their Records Clear

Alexandria Maiello is a good kid who got in trouble last year. Caught up in the excitement of being a high school freshman, with new privileges and a new group of peers, she gave in to temptation and a lapse of judgment. She and six friends went into a new, empty house, and she ended up being arrested for trespassing.

"I was extremely terror-stricken," says Alexandria. "I've never been in trouble before. I saw college slipping away. I was in despair. It was very depressing."

Fortunately for her, a new innovative youth diversion effort—the Juveniles Achieving Knowledge and Experience (JAKE) Program—had begun operating in Hillsborough County in April of 2006. Affiliated with the Gulf Ridge Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and funded by the Eckerd Family Foundation, the program was designed to provide an alternative to formal court proceedings for first-time, non-violent offenders. It also helps them to keep their juvenile conviction record clear.

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Barry University Trains Lawyers to Represent Vulnerable Defendants: Children

Hectic courtrooms. Kids routinely giving up their constitutional right to an attorney, often with a wink and a nod from the judge. Poorly prepared attorneys – and often no public defenders even present at detention hearings. Excessive guilty pleas.

Those were among the criticisms of legal representation for Florida’s indigent juveniles contained in a scathing 2006 report by the National Juvenile Defender Center. “Florida’s juvenile courts cannot guarantee due process and accountability for youth
without the participation of well-trained, well-resourced defense counsel,” the report said.

That stinging indictment was the impetus for a three-year grant from the Eckerd Family Foundation to establish the Juvenile Justice Center at Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law in Orlando to better train law students, public defenders and private attorneys to more ably defend children in Florida’s juvenile courts system. After the report’s release, Barry University and the Eckerd Family Foundation worked together to address the system’s inadequate representation, and the Center was established last year.


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Blueprint Commission Recommends Reforms to Florida's Juvenile Justice System

In early February, the Blueprint Commission and the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice presented its recommendations to reform Florida's juvenile justice system to Gov. Charlie Crist and the Legislature.

In its "Getting Smart about Juvenile Justice" report, the Blueprint Commission made 52 recommendations and seven guiding principles to be implemented over the coming years. The recommendations and principles are intended to guide and support DJJ in its commitment to focus on children and families while reducing juvenile delinquency and improving public safety. "As a commission, we believe that Florida must get smart about its response to and treatment of at-risk youth," Commission Chairman Frank Brogan wrote to former DJJ Secretary Walter McNeil. "We must move toward a more balanced system, one that proactively seeks to prevent juvenile delinquency, that redirects those youth at risk of delinquency, that provides more appropriate, less restrictive sanctions for low-risk and misdemeanant youth offenders, that focuses on rehabilitation, and that reserves serious sanctions for violent and habitual offenders."

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A Roller Coaster and Budget Tips: Connected by 25 Youth Visit Busch Gardens

A double roller-coaster. The world's famous Clydesdale horses. Nutrition and fitness tips. Legal and financial advice. Those were just a few of the highlights from the second annual Youth Summit, held at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay on February 10. About 75 youth in foster care attended the event, hosted by The Junior League of Tampa with Connected by 25, an initiative supported by the Eckerd Family Foundation to help youth in foster care make successful transitions to adulthood.

Connected by 25 was launched in 2005, and part of its tremendous success is due to innovative partnerships with community organizations that have rallied to help young adults who lose the supports of the foster care system when they turn 18. One such partnership is with the Junior League of Tampa, which began helping Cby25 youth last year. In another project, the Junior League also has given youth 150 move-in kits that included items they would need after leaving foster care, such as blankets, kitchen and cleaning supplies, even alarm clocks and toothpaste.

The recent Busch Gardens event, which was intended to impart life skills needed after foster care, featured motivational speaker Tye Maner, nutrition and fitness expert Myrna Haag, social and business etiquette guru Leslie Jennewein and attorney Paul Bain. For many teens, a highlight of the day was the chance to enjoy the amusement park, which many of the young people never have had the opportunity to do before.

Read about the Busch Gardens event in the St. Petersburg Times here.

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New Report: Independent Living Services for Youth in Foster Care

The Independent Living Services Advisory Council released its 2007 Report about independent living services for Florida’s youth in foster care. The report notes that as of July 1, 2007, there were 4,927 children, ages 13 through 17, in licensed foster care eligible for independent living services and 4,451 young adults formerly in foster care, ages 18 through 22, potentially eligible to receive independent living services. Calling these “manageable numbers,” the report makes a series of recommendations for the Florida Legislature and the Department of Children and Families. The report is posted on the Eckerd Family Foundation web site. To read the report, click here.

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We're Moving!

The Eckerd Family Foundation is moving to a new location! Effective April 8, our new office address, phone and fax numbers will be:

Eckerd Family Foundation
3000 Bayport Drive, Suite 560
Tampa, FL 33607

813-514-0858, phone

813-514-0864, fax

And please make a note of our new e-mail addresses:

Joseph W. Clark, President: JClark@EckerdFamilyFoundation.org
Jane V. Soltis, Program Officer: JSoltis@EckerdFamilyFoundation.org
Marilyn Downs, Grants Administrator: MDowns@EckerdFamilyFoundation.org

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The Eckerd Family Foundation is committed to promoting meaningful and lasting change to transform the lives of vulnerable youth and their families. The foundation's mission provides leadership and support for innovative educational, preventative, therapeutic and rehabilitative programs for children, youth and their families. The foundation awarded these new grants in February:

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATION & EMPLOYMENT:

Nonprofit Leadership Center of Tampa Bay
$60,000
Tampa, FL
Providing scholarship support for nonprofit personnel in the continuing effort to promote excellence in leadership and management in this sector. The program was the product of a unique and imaginative collaboration between the University of Tampa and NLCTB to develop the Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Innovation program. The certificate program is compatible with candidates ultimately opting to pursue a MBA. The grant is restricted to organizations serving children and families.

EARLY CHILD CARE:

Grace Jones Community Center
$100,000
Marathon, FL
A capital challenge grant for the renovation of this child care center serving children from low-income, working families. The center provides child care and after-school programming in a predominantly poor neighborhood. Every staff member has achieved the Child Development Associate status. The center has been a model STEPS, Early Learning Program for Head Start in the region and is the only licensed center serving infants in Monroe County.

FOSTER CARE:

Florida’s Children First
$54,289
Coral Springs, FL
Providing a third year of funding for the Florida Youth SHINE project, a statewide, youth-driven, advocacy project begun in 2005. The project has demonstrated the importance and effectiveness of youth voices in public policy debates. Over the first two years, youth participants have become strong advocates for improvement in the child welfare system, especially in foster care and independent living programs. A professional staff person will be added to solidify and expand the leadership group and establish additional local chapters in Florida.


JUVENILE JUSTICE:

Western Carolinians for Criminal Justice
$100,000
Asheville, NC
A two-year award supporting the Men’s Program that provides gender-responsive mental health and substance abuse counseling, court advocacy and intensive case management to male offenders from Buncombe County, North Carolina, who are at risk of incarceration or are returning from prison to the community. Funds will enable the expansion of the Men’s Program to focus on young men between the ages of 16 and 20 and will include a responsible fatherhood component in addition to age appropriate counseling and connection to workforce opportunities. It is estimated that the program will serve 45 young men annually.


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  Editors    
  Ed Hatcher ed@thehatchergroup.com  
  Angie Cannon angie@thehatchergroup.com  
  The Hatcher Group http://www.thehatchergroup.com  
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