Greetings as we proceed through what promises to be a positive and productive year.

This spirit is particularly well suited to the theme of our newsletter, which is systemic change and the organizations and individuals who create it.

There are few things more rewarding than seeing the results of our efforts – whether as individuals or organizations -- take root and become part of a new vision, a new approach or a new standard. This is the essence of the Eckerd Family Foundation grant process: to identify and support those who are committed to effecting real change on a lasting basis.

 

Contrary to what is prevalent in our business and personal lives today, systemic change can be a slow and even an irksome process. Far from providing immediate gratification, it requires patience, stamina and the willingness to take a longer term view. However, the impact of these programs can be immeasurable in terms of the change that will impact all of our lives. And we believe that this is what is at the heart of philanthropy – the ennobling activities each of us chooses to support that will make our lives and communities happier, healthier and safer.

In this issue, we’ll be spotlighting three people and the initiatives they support so tirelessly. In addition to systemic change, the common thread linking them is their dedication to programs and services that provide a more positive future for at-risk youth.

I welcome you to learn more about these special people and their programs and hope you will find their stories inspiring and motivating. Please let us know your comments and we thank you for your support of the Eckerd Family Foundation.

Sincerely,
Joe Clark

Youth in the Florida Juvenile Justice System: The Juvenile Justice Center at Barry University - Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law

It probably would not come as a surprise, if one thought about it, that there are serious issues related to legal services provided to children in the state of Florida. Despite a 40-year old ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court requiring that all children receive adequate representation, a study by the National Juvenile Defender Center, “A Florida Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings,” concluded there was much room for improvement in the indigent juvenile defense system in Florida. Of specific concern were the high rates of waiver of counsel, lack of effective defense advocacy, hectic courtrooms and inadequate defense resources.

Fortunately, Barry University’s Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law – Dean Leticia Diaz and Associate Professor Gerard Glynn – believed they could improve the quality of advocacy for children in the juvenile justice system and applied to the Eckerd Family Foundation for support in establishing the Juvenile Justice Center.
“We want children to receive quality representation that improves outcomes and helps them know they are heard,” says Glynn. “To do that, we need to build a system that supports quality representation, provides attorneys with training and other tools and establishes systemic support for attorneys.”

He adds that the challenges are many and complex. Florida is a very diverse state with 20 judicial circuits. Some circuits are doing great things for kids while others need some consultation and training. The Center would like to make an impact on the various players involved in the system, from the courtroom attorneys to the elected public defenders, as well as reach the prosecutors, judges and representative of juvenile justice agencies.

“Lawyers at this level need to be better at their craft than other attorneys,” says Glynn. In addition to being skilled attorneys, they must also understand child development, relationship formation and attorney boundaries, recognizing that the family is not the client – the child is the client. “Quality attorneys for children can make a special difference because they may be the only people the children view as being on their side,” he adds. “If defenders build on that relationship to make a difference, they can have a huge impact on their client’s future.”

 

The Center’s program, while ambitious, has maintained a steadfast focus on the following elements:

• Continuous training for attorneys, support staff and all others involved in the provision of juvenile justice services
• Dispositional advocacy to present independent treatment and disposition alternatives to the courts
• Educational advocacy to represent the educational needs of clients
• Systemic advocacy that promotes fairness and equality for children

“The Eckerd Family Foundation grant came at a critical time,” says Diaz. “The worsening economic climate during 2009 resulted in deep budget cuts that made our training and consultation more important than ever before.” She points to an almost palpable need on the part of juvenile defenders to attend live seminars and connect with each other more frequently through Learn@Lunch conference calls.

This is more than a project for Diaz, Glynn and Center Director Carrie Lee; it is a passion. “The status of being a child is not an excuse for a kangaroo court,” they say. They have set high standards for measurement of their success:

• Fewer children are processed without representation
• Fewer children are detained
• More children are provided comprehensive assessments and services to meet their needs

Going forward, the Center’s goals include development of statewide best practices, as well as the expansion of consultation, training, advocacy services and development of better data collection services to improve measurement of outcomes. “We are incredibly proud of the Center and the real change that’s happening as a result of our passion,” says Diaz. “We understand our challenges and constraints, and will be steadfast in moving forward to serve our children and the individuals who defend them.”

Educating our children in the Juvenile Justice System:
Barney Bishop and the Florida Juvenile Justice Foundation

At first glance, it might seem strange that the president and CEO of Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) would be the passionately involved chairman of the Florida Juvenile Justice Foundation, an Eckerd Family Foundation grantee. But that’s probably because you don’t know Barney Bishop.

“Children in our juvenile justice system are different in terms of their educational skills. Most have below-grade reading and writing skills and lack strong family support. Once in the system, their educational experience may be ‘the luck of the draw,’” says Bishop. “If we don’t provide the necessary tools for those who want to further their education and if all we do is incarcerate and later release them to low paying, unskilled jobs, the revolving door will continue. When we break the cycle, we not only improve their lives, but also reduce the cost of future incarceration and provide a more skilled workforce to build Florida’s future.”

Bishop notes there are currently 45,000 children in the state’s juvenile justice system and wonders why more people don’t see that as a tremendous untapped workforce talent pool. But he says there’s another, closer to home reason that business owners should see this as an important economic issue. Recidivism rates of 20 to 50 percent in the juvenile and adult systems have created a massive demand within the corrections system. In December 2008, the Florida Department asked for construction of 19 new prisons – a multi-billion dollar request for an already-cash strapped state. With no money to fund the request, the alternative would to bond it, looking in large measure to the business community to pay.

Bishop realizes the importance of influencing the system and involving the business community to achieve long term results. Elected officials and other key interest groups are listening, he says, pointing to the involvement of the Coalition of Smart Justice, the Correctional Advisory Commission, the Florida Police Benevolent Association and his own organization, AIF.

Working with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, the Florida Juvenile Justice Foundation identifies children leaving the system and invites them to apply for scholarships to link them back to the community and provide educational and vocational opportunities. They “earn” their eligibility and the right to this investment. “This is not an entitlement and we are not talking about early release programs,” says Bishop. “If these children meet all necessary requirements imposed by the juvenile justice system, they should become eligible for a ‘boost’ back into the community that will link them to more successful behaviors.”

Flexibility is the key to this highly individualized program that may fund services as disparate as classes, transportation and even dental work. “We all make hundreds of decisions each day, and unfortunately most children in the juvenile justice system have already established a history of making poor decisions. By improving their reading, writing and soft skills, providing the type of support and guidance that helps them make better choices and providing vocational assistance, we can make a huge impact on children who want to change their lives.”

Prevention and the allocation of resources on the front end will pay off at the back end, he says, but this will require some perceptual changes on the part of the general public and legislators. It’s become easy, whether in political or social discourse, to dismiss juvenile and adult offenders as criminals first and social misfits second, disregarding the impact of substance abuse, mental health or other compelling forces that affect so many of us in the broader population as well.

“This is a leadership issue and I believe Florida’s business community will accept the challenge. Through the Foundation, we changed the lives of 100 kids last year, none of whom has committed another crime, by providing assistance, guidance and counseling to those who wanted to make a change,” says Bishop. He adds that some of these youth are now in community college or working. “To the extent that we can have them become good employees and productive citizens, we are moving in the direction that offers them – and us – the most hope.”

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Quality Parenting Initiative and “Rebranding” Foster Care: Carole Shauffer and Youth Law Center
All children need high quality parenting until they are fully mature. Many of us may be surprised to learn, though, that this process extends until the child reaches the mid-twenties, when the areas of the brain associated with judgment and reasoning become more fully developed.

“Parenting, as distinct from caring for a child, involves meeting the child’s social, emotional and cognitive developmental needs as well as the physical needs,” says Carole Shauffer, Executive Director of the Youth Law Center, an Eckerd Family Foundation grantee. “Although adolescents may be able to meet many of their own physical needs, they still require guidance and support for healthy development.”

This issue, one of great importance for any child, becomes even more significant for children who receive parenting from someone other than biological or adoptive parents, often through a foster parent system. Shauffer notes that over the years, many professionals have failed to recognize that foster children may need better quality, more sophisticated parenting services than other children. “Once damaged, these children must overcome their distorted responses,” she says.

“This can be a heartbreaking situation. Foster kids feel they are second class citizens who never receive their favorite foods, are never asked what they would really like and experience a demoralizing existence,” she says. “We must change practice so that everything we do reflects our mission to provide quality care and a better life for them.”

The Youth Law Center grant sought to tackle these issues by improving services to Florida’s dependent children in the care and custody of the Department of Children and Families (DCF), with the goal of having a positive effect on up to 20,000 children in two ways:

• Assist DCF in improving its quality assurance program to address critical issues for children and assure they are moving toward permanency
• Assist DCF in developing a model for foster parent recruitment, retention and support that can be used by local community based care agencies

Other aspects of the project include:

• Educate and involve private philanthropy and business in child welfare reform efforts
• Develop an effective public/private and nonprofit partnership for local implementation

“We wanted to provide high quality parenting to children in the child welfare system and increase the number of excellent foster families, which means we had to be able to define high quality parenting, as well as how to recruit and retain the best foster families,” says Shauffer.

As for the internal branding aspect, she is referring to training staff to internalize, articulate and support the brand; understanding their role in the identification, recruitment, training and, most important, support of high quality foster parents who epitomize the brand. “We need to move beyond the minimum level of performance to express real customer service in support of the brand.”

Last year, working with three Community Based Care demonstration sites in the state that agreed to serve as peer mentors to future participants (CBC of Seminole, Hillsborough Kids and Big Bend Community Based Care), the Youth Law Center sought to identify and use relevant data, define and assess quality foster parenting, provide marketing and targeted recruitment guidance, establish proper recruitment and retention processes, improve utilization of homes to serve special populations and apply human resource principles in support and retention.