Evidence-based Nebraska FY 24-25 Evaluation Strategy

It’s that time of year again! The JJI is getting prepared for fiscal year 2024-2025 evaluations for Community-based Juvenile Services Aid funded programs for Evidence-based Nebraska. We are repeating a similar process to last year’s individual program reports, with a few improvements!

This memo provides an overview of our evaluation plan for this year, what program’s should expect moving forward, and what we need from you. The important date to keep in mind right now is OCTOBER 15, 2024. This is when all data must be completely entered into the Juvenile Case Management System (JCMS) in order to be included in evaluation.

NIJ Evaluation: Wraparound Programs

The National Institute of Justice has released a report examining “wraparound” programs aimed at lowering juvenile delinquency. The methods used by wraparound programs involve surrounding at-risk youth with coordinated sources, including school staff, courts, law enforcement, and services. By providing support through these methods, the hope is that the youth will be less likely to commit offenses, while also making schools and communities safer for other students.

However, in practice, the NIJ found that wraparound programs—even well-designed ones—did not accomplish the goal of reducing delinquency. Results were inconsistent, and the evaluation determined that it was neither harmful nor beneficial in the pilot program(s) in terms of schoolwide effects.

Additionally, researchers struggled to implement the program in schools while coordinating with other entities of the law. The program performed better when there was greater buy-in from principals and staff in the schools. Staffing also was identified as an issue in the evaluation.

To read more about the NIJ’s wraparound program evaluation, you can visit their site here.

NIJ Evaluation: Group Mentoring

The National Institute of Justice has released a report on the effectiveness on Project Arrive, an intervention that focuses on youth who are at risk of dropping out of school. This intervention uses group mentoring as a model, which consists of a group of six to eight students meeting with two volunteer co-mentors.

The NIJ used two separate studies that looked at whether or not the intervention had an effect on youth. For the most part, these studies found that Project Arrive has no significant effect on the following aspects: juvenile offenses, home support, self-awareness, instructional time, and GPA.

To read the full profile of the Project Arrive program, you can visit the NIJ’s website here.