There is increasing recognition of the prevalence of trauma exposure among youth involved in the juvenile justice system. To better address the needs of these youth while mitigating negative downstream consequences of their behavior (e.g., youth recidivism), there have been efforts to develop trauma-informed programming. In this report, the authors conduct an evaluation of a trauma-informed pilot program run by the Colorado Division of Youth Services (DYS) in a residential youth facility. The authors find that core elements of the pilot program are consistent with trauma-informed models. Similar models, such as the Missouri Model, have been demonstrated to be effective in reducing negative youth and staff outcomes. However, the authors found few significant effects of the pilot program on outcomes of interest during the evaluation period. That said, there were a number of implementation challenges that may have contributed to the lack of significant differences. These include potential contamination effects, as staff and youth from across units interacted during the study period, as well as obstacles related to staffing levels and larger facility-level concerns. As the program continues to be implemented, it will be important to develop a clear program model; address concerns related to training and staffing levels; and continue to monitor the implementation and outcomes of the program.
In this report, the authors present the results of a process and outcome evaluation of a trauma-informed pilot program run by the Colorado Division of Youth Services (DYS) in one of their residential youth facilities.
There is increasing recognition of the prevalence of trauma exposure among youth involved in the juvenile justice system. To better address the needs of these youth, and to reduce the negative consequences of their behavior, there has been a move toward trauma-informed programming. In this report, the authors present the evaluation of a trauma-informed pilot program run by the Colorado Division of Youth Services in a residential youth facility.
In this report, the authors present the results of a process and outcome evaluation of a trauma-informed pilot program run by the Colorado Division of Youth Services (DYS) in one of their residential youth facilities.
