Implementation Evaluation of Capacity-Building Programs Funded by the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act in Los Angeles County

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Turner, Susan

Contributor:

Holliday, Stephanie Brooks

Perez, Hansell

Whitaker, Laura

Language:

English

Place of Publication:

RAND Corporation 2024

Summary:

Los Angeles (L.A.) County has taken a novel approach to using crime-prevention funding to support at-risk and justice-involved youth: The county funds not only direct-service organizations but also capacity-building efforts for those organizations. The Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) provides funding to counties to support programs that have proven their effectiveness in curbing crime among at-risk youth and youth involved in the juvenile justice system. The L.A. County Probation Department (Probation) allocated JJCPA funds in 2019 for three local capacity-building efforts. The organizations that participated in these efforts were the California State University, Los Angeles; the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health's Office of Violence Prevention; and Ready to Rise, a public-private partnership among Probation, the California Community Foundation, and the Liberty Hill Foundation. Probation hired RAND to evaluate the efforts' implementation. As part of that evaluation, the authors interviewed staff members from Probation, the three JJCPA-funded capacity-building efforts, and local organizations that received the efforts' services. In this report, the authors discuss their evaluation's context, methods, and findings, including shared barriers and facilitators to implementation.