Pathways to Opportunity [One Sheet]

The pathways provide a way to engage the voices and experiences of directly impacted people, strengthen participatory methods, and innovative approaches to policy problem solving

Place Matters Continuum of Care Report

In 2019 and beyond, Maine policymakers will make decisions about how to support Maine’s youth, families, and communities. Youth involved in the justice or child welfare system that are transitioning to adulthood (ages 14 to 25) are a particularly vulnerable and underserved population. Approximately fourteen thousand young people in Maine between the ages of 16 and 24 are disconnected from school and unemployed, and roughly three thousand of these youth will face homelessness or will return to communities from outof- home treatment, confinement, or multi-system involvement ranging from days to years. At eighteen, some face a chasm of service availability as they age out of child-serving systems and programs. Those who have criminal records as a result of their justice system involvement face additional barriers to employment, education, and other opportunities. This is compounded by persistent opportunity gaps experienced by youth of color, girls, LGBT and gender nonconforming youth. Strategies and policies that are neutral regarding race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression fail to address these disparities. Presently, twelve percent of Maine’s children under the age of 18 are growing up in poverty and hunger. Many young people are experiencing housing insecurity, substance use, domestic violence, and trauma. Inconsistently available community-based interventions and supports, especially in rural areas, are exacerbated by state reductions in services and fluctuating government contributions to the safety net. For decades, assessments of both the corrections and health and human services systems have reached the same conclusion: community-based services in Maine have been under resourced and underfunded. Recommendations consistently point to needed investments in community-based services for youth and families. This is because place matters, especially in how Maine targets its investments in certain communities. It matters for youth, it matters for families, it matters for communities and it matters for the persistence of those places

YAP Program Info Sheet

Youth Advocates Programs, Inc. (YAP) is a nationally recognized, nonprofit organization committed to the provision of community-based alternatives and out-of-home care through direct service, advocacy and policy change. YAP works with more than 19,000 youth and families annually in 23 states and the District of Columbia in over 100 communities.YAP works with youth and families involved in the Juvenile Justice, Child Welfare, Behavioral Health and Education systems. Their work with system-involved youth helps states move youth from formal system involvement and into effective approaches that support the youth in the community. Services are individualized for the youth and the family but usually include care management, 24/7 crisis intervention services, skill development, education, and vocational work

Credible Messenger Program Info Sheet

Transformative Mentoring is an intensive youth development model that seeks to transform the mentality and behavior of the most at-risk or hardest to reach delinquent youth and provide them with healthy relationships with positive adults. A core element of this approach is the belief that communities are best positioned to respond to the needs of youth given the opportunity and the resources. The model centers around the pairing of youth with specially trained adults who have had relevant life experiences, most commonly previous involvement in the criminal justice systems, called Credible Messengers

ROCA Program Info Sheet

Roca’s theory of change is that young people, when re-engaged through positive and intensive relationships, can change their behaviors and develop life, education, and employment skills to disrupt the cycles of poverty and incarceration. Roca’s Intervention Model is a cognitive-restructuring, behavioral change and skill development intervention, which focuses on high-risk young men. Roca’s model focuses on 17-to-24-year-old young men who are either: 1) aging out of the juvenile justice or juvenile probation systems with a strong propensity for re-incarceration as an adult; 2) connected with the adult justice system; or 3) are high-risk members of the community being served who have a strong propensity for incarceration as an adult. This is a four-year program designed to allow participants enough time to undergo meaningful behavior change, which will enable them to stay out of jail and go to work. The first two years involve intensive interaction between the program and the young man, focusing on gradually engaging the participant in programming and promoting behavior change. The subsequent two years focus on sustaining the positive change in behavior. The ultimate goals of the model are reducing participants’ incarceration rates and increasing participants’ ability to retain employment over time

Youth Justice in Maine: Imagine a New Future Summit [Summary & Recommendations]

On November 17, 2017, the Justice Policy Program at the University of Southern Maine and the Maine Center for Juvenile Policy and Law hosted Youth Justice in Maine: Imagine a New Future at the Westin Portland Harborview Hotel in Portland, Maine. The purpose of this report is to summarize and share the information disseminated and generated at the summit. Additionally, this report seeks to summarize the issues raised and capture some of the recommendations made by attendees about how to re-envision youth justice in Maine and improve outcomes for justice involved youth and our communities

Place Matters Roadmap Project [Summary]

Building on work to date and research that underscores the need for an integrated, cross systems continuum of care, The Maine Youth Road Map Project will provide policymakers and communities with a roadmap that will: • Examine how youth outcomes are shaped by structural place based factors across Maine’s sixteen counties and local communities. • Identify specific system populations and places for equitable investments to improve outcomes. • Propose a data informed community based continuum of care. • Engage with and amplify voices of Maine communities. • Create direct education and employment opportunities for directly impacted older youth. • Recommend policy, program, and systems change strategies to strengthen economic and social wellbeing for Maine youth and communities

Restorative Community Conferencing Info Sheet

Modeled after the New Zealand Family Group Conferencing model, Restorative Community Conferencing (RCC) involves an organized, facilitated dialogue in which young people, with the support of family, community, and law enforcement, meet with their crime victims to create a plan to repair the harm done. It is most effective with serious crimes in which there is an identifiable victim, such as in the case of robbery, burglary, car theft, assault/battery, arson, and teen relationship violence. Eligibility criteria for enrollment in a restorative justice process vary among programs. Some jurisdictions interested in reducing racial and ethnic disparities may target crimes that young people of color are most often incarcerated for, such as robbery, larceny, and assault, whereas others make eligible any offense that could otherwise result in incarceration. Ultimately, the eligibility criteria for a particular program will depend on the agreement between the applicable jurisdiction’s district attorney and probation offices and the organization carrying out the restorative process

From Pipelines to Informing Place-Based Strategies for Maine\u27s Older Youth

To help guide and inform the implementation of the recommendations in the first report in this series, Place Matters: Aligning Investments in a Community-Based Continuum of Care for Maine Youth Transitioning to Adulthood, this report addresses data resources. It presents data snapshots of the all sixteen counties in Maine for a number of measures that are related to system involvement. The measures summarized here have limitations, but together they serve as a starting point and highlight what is needed in terms of data in order to monitor the systems affecting Maine youth. These data include indicators of early involvement in systems such as the youth justice, child welfare, and behavioral health systems. A summary of the key data points is provided, as well as recommendations. Forthcoming reports will address community inclusion by representing the assets and opportunities identified by communities and lifting up youth voice. This knowledge is critical to implement the recommendations in the first report of this series, Place Matters: Aligning Investments in a Community-Based Continuum of Care for Maine Youth Transitioning to Adulthood.3 The universal goal then, as now, is that all Maine transition aged (14-24) youth thrive into adulthood

Development of a Program to Educate Physician Assistant Students on Performance of a Comprehensive Breast Exam

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a new program to educate physician assistant (PA) students on the performance of a comprehensive breast exam and to test its effectiveness as compared to the previous program. Methods: The preexisting educational program for the performance of a clinical breast exam was evaluated during the term prior to the start of clinical rotations for the class of 2015. Baseline data were obtained from this control group by evaluation of student competency using a skills examination, utilizing a Nasco Advanced Breast Exam Simulator, and using a female standardized patient. An innovative program educating the PA class of 2016 on the performance and interpretation of a comprehensive breast exam was instituted, incorporating a new palpation technique, new models, and simulated patients. Both classes were directly compared in terms of their breast examination skills at 5 months post-training by administering the same skills examination. Nested, mixed, generalized, and linear models were created to look for differences between the two classes. Each model was adjusted by covariates to account for variation in student ability. Results: The PA class of 2016 showed statistically better performance in breast inspection, lymph node palpation, breast palpation, breast mass detection, and documentation of findings compared to the PA class of 2015. Conclusion: The new educational program on the clinical breast exam using a well-organized laboratory session with subsequent skills testing was found to be very efficacious