Exciting news from the U.S., where a bill, the Childhood Outcomes Need New Efficient Community Teams (CONNECT) Act will authorize grants for collecting data on and developing policies to help so-called “dual status youth”. Dual status youth or “crossover cases” refer to young people who are involved with both the welfare and justice systems.
“We need more information about who these young people are and the challenges they face so they have a fair shot at a path to success,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, who introduced the bipartisan legislation with Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa.
Child welfare and juvenile justice experts need to work together to keep vulnerable youth safe, off the streets, and away from a life of crime,” Grassley said. “Our bill encourages state and local agencies to work as a team to develop best practices and better policies to help at-risk youth and ultimately to produce better, positive outcomes.”
Read all about it here and here.
This is exactly the kind of legislation we need here in Ireland.
