HomeMy WebLinkAboutJCPC minutes 080516Orange County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council Meeting
Friday, August 5, 2016 (12:00noon – 2:00pm)
Southern Human Services Center
Chapel Hill, NC
Proposed Minutes
Attendees: Meg McGurk, Tina Sykes, Jeff Nieman, Peggy Hamlett, Bernard Miles,
Sharron Hinton, Carol McClelland, Renee Price, Arianna Hinton, Conrad Weiden, Dana
Graves, Nick Allen, Nathan Ligo, Jamie Rohe, Paul Atherton, Val Hanson, Tami Pfeifer, S.
Hirsch, Georgia Gamcsik, Susan Worley, Tom McQuiston, Rebekah Rapoza (*Members in
Bold)
Welcome
The meeting opened with a welcome from Chair, Meg McGurk and introductions.
Minutes Review and Approval
The Council reviewed the minutes from June. Jeff Nieman motioned for minutes to be approved
and was seconded by Carol McClelland. Motion carried unanimously.
Agency Roundtable
Chair asked for programs to give an update and report on FY15-16 Measureable Objectives.
Boomerang – Served 148 youth (goal was 165). Measureable objectives are for the Alternative
to Suspension program and center around youth participation, successful completion, abstinence
from behaviors that led to them getting in trouble, and improvements in targeted skills. All
measureable objectives were met.
When looking at reason for suspensions in FY 15-16, substance use (especially with prescription
medication) was again the highest reason, followed by fighting, and then disrespect/
insubordination. Schools making the most referrals were Orange High and Chapel Hill High.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School students comprised 65%, Orange County School students
comprised 33%, and the remaining youth came from school districts outside of Orange County.
The program believes they would serve more Orange County students if transportation was
better. Commissioner Renee Price suggested speaking with Peter Murphy in Planning Dept.
about the transportation issue for youth from northern Orange getting to Chapel Hill to make
them aware. There have also been talks about getting a northern Orange location to offer another
site for alternative to suspension program, and possibly the afterschool activities. It was also
suggested to speak with David Caldwell about the Efland Community Center because the county
is trying to make better use of that space.
This summer Boomerang has been working a lot with the youth from the Community Service &
Restitution program to get in their hours. They had 2 paid student interns and have been
partnering with EmPOWERment Inc. to offer skill building sessions on Fridays for their 16
youth involved in the Career Explorers program.
School Liaison – The program is no longer JCPC funded; the funds were made up by Orange
County Schools. The program served 34 youth between both school districts (goal was 50).
Numbers were down as far as compliance and measureable objectives for the first time in years.
The program is branching out to take referrals from Misdemeanor Diversion Program and Pre-
Trial Services.
Volunteers for Youth – Numbers were down in both programs for the year due to low referral
numbers because there have been less youth coming into the juvenile justice system. Teen Court
program met all measureable objectives and Community Service & Restitution program met all
objectives except the one where the youth would complete their community service/restitution in
the required time frame (Goal – 70%, Actual – 66%).
Freedom House – FAN served 50 clients (goal was 70) and family consultation program served
229 (goal was 175). Program offered 7 Common Sense Parenting classes, with 40 parents
completing. Psych Services completed 20 assessments (goal was 25).
The last year has been a transitional year with fluctuation in staff hours which may have
accounted for not meeting all the numbers. They continued to offer monthly workshops for
parents and providers, although the frequency of the workshops has been less than in past year.
Linda Boldin is certified in Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) and Georgia Gamcsik was
certified as Mental Health First Aid Instructor.
Dispute Settlement Center – Restorative Justice Program was estimated to serve 15 and they
served 19 with 18 of 19 meeting all the program objectives. Family Table met all objectives
except successful/satisfactory completion of the program. This objective wasn’t met because 1
youth was transferred out of town, 2 sisters couldn’t finish because mom was having
transportation difficulties, and 1 was transferred to an inpatient program.
They have had a really successful year; are expanding and doing a lot of collaboration with
Orange County Schools and Boomerang.
Young Warriors – It has been a slow summer, with only 4 referrals (2 from El Centro Hispano
and 2 from Carolina Outreach). Two youth have completed the required hours, but continue to
stay on with the program. FY 15-16 they projected to serve 16 youth (6 court referred) and met
that goal. They also met all their measureable objective goals.
DJJ Data –June: 6 distinct juveniles, 8 complaints, 3 approved for court, 8 put on plan or
contract, 3 school related offenses, 1 juvenile in detention for 1 day, and 1 juvenile on electronic
monitoring for 8 days.
July: 4 distinct juveniles, 4 complaints, 1 approved for court, 1 put on a plan or contract, 0 school
related offenses, 1 juvenile in detention for 8 days (same juvenile from June), and 1 juvenile on
electronic monitoring for 5 days (same juvenile from June).
Two juveniles were at Wrenn House in June and July for a total of 34 days. Wrenn House is
often used as an alternative to suspension.
Risk Level – (Refer to graph handout) In May 2015, the Sentencing and Policy Advisory
Commission did a recidivism study for North Carolina juveniles and they determined that the
previous version of the Risk Level Instrument was not providing a true reflection of those
juveniles who had a true risk for future offending. Too many youth were being classified as low-
risk and should not have been. The Dept. of Public Safety collaborated with the Commission to
study their own data and it was recommended that the risk assessment be re-normed to truly
reflect (based on the recidivism study) where the juveniles fit. The classification used to be low,
medium, or high, and now it is R1-R5 (with R1 being the lowest and R5 the highest).
Looking at the graph, the same youth were classified under both risk assessments. The previous
assessment had 67% classified as low-risk and under the re-normed assessment 21% of youth
were classified as R1-R2. The previous risk assessment used to only be given if there was a new
offense/charge, but the re-normed assessment is required to be administered every 90 days or if
there is a significant life event.
Billy Lassiter is holding four town hall meetings across the state to hold meetings with the
community to answer questions about raising the juvenile age. Meg raised the idea of the JCPC
sponsoring a town hall meeting here in Orange County and use it as an opportunity for
community outreach. There isn’t a meeting being held in the central area because there has been
a lot of meeting held in Raleigh lately and they wanted to give the outer-lying counties an
opportunity to host. Meg will reach out to Billy to see about the feasibility of hosting one.
JCPC Business
Final Accounting – Reminder for funded programs to get Final Accounting in to Rebekah by
August 19.
July 2016 Program Payments – Funded programs should have received those payments.
Conflict of Interest Forms – At the beginning of every new FY, every board member must sign a
new conflict of interest form. Forms will be passed around, please complete and turn into
Rebekah before you leave the meeting. Paul will bring a copy to Judge Bryan.
Report on Conference/Training Opportunity – Boomerang staff went to a Motivational
Interviewing conference. Motivational Interviewing is working with clients to get them to name
the changes they want to see and do; it is getting them to identify their goals instead of staff
telling them what needs to be done. Tami said it was a great training and is appreciative of the
opportunity.
Val went to the Restorative Justice in Motion Conference with practitioners from all over the
world. It was a really intensive 4-day conference and she is grateful for the opportunity to
attend. Sessions included: Theater of the Oppressed, Racism Stops with Me, Justice from the
Heart, Mobilizing Youth as Restorative Leaders, Working with People Who Have Endured
Profound Grief, was able to sit in circle to discuss how to incorporate “racism stops with me” in
their communities, sat in on a private (4 people) meeting to discuss the future of restorative
justice in NC, and was able to hear Chief Justice of the Navajo Nation speak about the
Indigenous Restorative Justice that they have had in place for a long time. There is so much
information that she learned and will be putting into practice here in Orange County.
Membership Update – Jeff Reilly and Tom Velivil have moved on to new endeavors and will no
longer be a part of the JCPC board. Meg will reach out to the Interim-Superintendent for the
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to ask for him to assign a new designee. We have been in
contact with Cardinal about a replacement for Tom and are waiting for confirmation of who that
will be. Member of Faith Community position is open and Sharron Hinton would like to
recommend Kysha Thompson, a social worker at DSS with the Building Futures Program, who
also happens to be a minister of Sozo Life Ministries, located behind McDonald’s in
Hillsborough (across from Gateway community). The board members seem to be in agreement
that she would be a good fit and Sharron will follow-up to confirm interest. And lastly, we have
a new United Way Representative, Nick Allen.
Announcements
Family Table is currently accepting referrals for their next session which will begin around the
end of September or beginning of October. They will accept referrals from Misdemeanor
Diversion Program but due to the frequency and length of Family Table, the program won’t be
able to count towards any of their required hours.
Several JCPC board members will be out of town at a conference on the day of our next
scheduled meeting (October 7). It has been proposed to either keep the meeting as scheduled,
most likely without a quorum, or to move the meeting to the following Friday (October 14). It
was decided to reschedule the meeting.
Next JCPC Meeting: Friday, October 14, 2016; Location: Orange Works, Hillsborough
Commons, 113 Mayo Street, Hillsborough