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Impacting DMC in Your Community: Do’s and Don’ts. 5 th Annual DMC Resource Center & Minority Youth and Families Initiative Conference Des Moines, Iowa December 1, 2006. Pathway to DMC Reform. Acknowledgment. Action. Acceptance. Agreement. Personal/Community Assessment.
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Impacting DMC in Your Community:Do’s and Don’ts 5th Annual DMC Resource Center & Minority Youth and Families Initiative Conference Des Moines, Iowa December 1, 2006
Pathway to DMC Reform Acknowledgment Action Acceptance Agreement
Personal/Community Assessment • Have I acknowledged that DMC exists in my community? • Has my community acknowledged that DMC exits?
Personal/Community Assessment • Have I accepted personal responsibility for my contributions to both the problems of and solutions to DMC? • Have all key agencies accepted responsibility for both the problems of and solutions to DMC? • Have all key individuals accepted personal responsibility for both the problems of and solutions to DMC?
Personal/Community Assessment • Has our DMC community/team reached agreement on the problem (or problem areas)? • Have we reached agreement on our focus? • Have we agreed on our desired outcomes? • Have we agreed on an action plan to address DMC? • Is our action plan designed to reduce DMC in the next one to two years?
Personal/Community Assessment • Has our community implemented specific activities to address DMC? • Have we maintained our focus on reducing DMC? • Do we have evidence that our efforts have impacted DMC?
DMC Do’s and Don’ts • Be open and willing to be uncomfortable with the subject • Be willing to confront your personal bias • Don’t let your uncomfortablness become a roadblock to action
Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. - James Baldwin
DMC Do’s and Don’ts • Don’t lose your sense of humor and ability to laugh at yourself and the absurd • Do lose your biases that impact the children and families you work with
DMC Do’s and Don’ts • Do collect data on all key decision points in the juvenile justice system • Don’t get sidetracked by data on community/individual social condition indicators (i.e., poverty, employment, graduation rates, etc.)
DMC Do’s and Don’ts • Let data guide you to further inquiry • Don’t be content with general observations about data (i.e., racial makeup of youth arrested, released, detained, etc.) • Be open to anything/anywhere the data leads you
DMC Do’s and Don’ts • Focus on the things you have control over (i.e., things that you can change) • Don’t get hung up on issues and problems that you cannot solve with your DMC efforts
DMC Do’s and Don’ts • Don’t work in isolation • Connect with all systems serving youth • Connect with other initiatives
Contact Information: Randy S. Thomas Ed Necco and Associates 503 Darby Creek Road Lexington, KY 40347 (859) 264-8732 RandyT@necco.org