The Barton County Commission Friday morning lauded the efforts of 20th Judicial District Juvenile Services as Director Marissa Woodmansee presented her agency’s fiscal year 2004 budget for approval. The action came during a special meeting to meet her deadline to file and receive state funding.
Since Barton County serves as the administrative county for the district, it falls to the commission to sign off on budget requests involving related agencies. The district serves Barton, Ellsworth, Rice, Russell and Stafford counties, with Barton being the largest.
The 20th Judicial District Juvenile Services is funded by Kansas Department of Corrections – Juvenile Services grant, Woodmansee said. “Programs must improve outcomes for youth, families and communities and follow evidence-based practices.”
Included in the information was the $33,157.82 budget for prevention, $806,697.12 for graduated sanctions and $320,782.38 for Juvenile Corrections Advisory Board programming. Also included was $256,626 in reinvestment funds.
The total budget this year is at $1,417,263.32. “That’s coming to Barton County and this district and communities that we serve,” she said.
This two-year grant funding must be used specifically for family engagement and advocacy programming, she said.
“I understand that sometimes it can be a little inundating with what all we truly do over there and what that looks like,” Woodmansee said. “We are trying to certainly do a better job of educating the public as well as our stakeholders and partners that we work with.”
When one looks at the totality of Juvenile Services, they really work juveniles from zero to age 23, she said “With that comes a lot of different programming and a lot of different aspects.”
Basically, this program funding comes from three areas, she said.
The first is the Reinvestment Grant, which arose from the corrections reforms that took place in 2016. “With that grant, we do our family engagement and advocacy, and then our Parent Project curriculum (which has offered classes for parents).”
The next component comes from the Juvenile Corrections Advisory Board (JCAB) money that is based on the report she gives to the Legislature each October. “This report specifically looks at the gaps that we have in helping our youth be successful,” she said.
Youth must receive 175 program hours to help with their rehabilitation. ”That was the biggest gap that I noticed was trying to figure out how to actually get the youth that we serve that the amount of program hours,” she said.
So, this led to the hiring of an advocate whose sole responsibility is connecting with youth, and helping them make the program hours.
Also under this is the day school which serves kids who have been suspended or expelled from school. “Well, I don’t want you to sit at home,” she said. “I want you still doing your schoolwork I still want you doing your schoolwork, I still want you to be accountable to you know your family to the community.”
Lastly, is the biggest chunk and that is the state Block Grant that her office must use to run their intake and assessment, and immediate intervention (diversions), prevention, and supervised probation and case management.
Things look a little different this year with more emphasis on accountability, Woodmansee said. “They are very goal oriented.”
One of her goals is to streamline training for staff and law enforcement. This covers rule and requirement changes her agency has undergone.
There is also a stronger push for the youth to get the required services. “The whole premise is that they don’t escalate within the justice system,” she said, noting they want to take all the steps they can to keep youth out of prison.
“I really appreciate the Parent Program because you can’t just work with the youth,” District 5 Commissioner Donna Zimmerman said. You have to bring the parents on board.”
“I just want to commend you for doing a great job and I like how your program is evolving and meeting the needs in our community,” said District 4 Commissioner Tricia Schlessiger.
