Specifications include, but are not limited to: The Judicial Branch seeks a contractor to, among other things, provide the following services: 1. Family Engagement Services available to Scott County initially, with IJB having the option to expand the service to all counties of the Seventh Judicial District (Scott, Muscatine, Cedar, Clinton & Jackson). The need is to bring Government closer to the people. We use the term “grassroots development” to describe the process by which disadvantaged people organize themselves to improve the social, cultural and economic well-being of their families, communities and societies. People active in grassroots movements typically have the best understanding of the local issues. This is because they are members of the community most affected by the issue at hand. Public Safety plays an all- important role in every decision/action taken by a juvenile court officer. When a youth’s behavior becomes so erratic that they present a threat to public safety or even to their own well- being, immediate forms of control must be taken, i.e., use of detention or out of home placement. However, most youth have many chances to alter their behavior at home, in school or in the community before these more coercive steps are even considered. Every year 60 percent of youth who become involved in juvenile justice for the first time manage to avoid ever having a second contact. It is concerning that there are youth who need further assistance to make the needed changes to stay of the Juvenile Justice system and more concerning that we may be missing obvious opportunities to help these youth flourish. These are the youth that can become trapped in cycles of recidivism, ultimately ending in incarceration or harm. These are also the adolescents that, if engaged and diverted out of the system, can go on to live productive lives. Juvenile Court Services is proud of the successes that have been achieved by our limited partnering with youth and families to improve client outcomes, however far too many youth begin their contact with Juvenile court services with low level delinquencies and eventually find themselves ‘graduating’ to the adult criminal system. JCS hopes to reduce the number of clients for whom the system has failed by deliberately partnering with the parents and the youth themselves to find blind spots and areas where family partners may have not felt valued or heard. The goal is to build a collaborative program where families are valued as the experts in how young people can pull themselves from the Court System and succeed in all the truly important aspects of their lives. As crucial partners, parents will be paid for their involvement in this collaborative process and Juvenile Court Services will strive to make changes ranging from the substance of their daily contacts to operational policy and protocols when possible. In short the juvenile justice system does not know what it does not know and this program will be a vehicle to assist us in humbly seeking the assistance of the true experts in the lives of adolescents, their parents. 2. How will you ensure representation on the Family Engagement group from the following groups? Representation from all high schools and middle schools Experiences from across the juvenile justice continuum (prevention to reentry) Various levels of success in juvenile justice system interventions Racial and ethnic diversity Various communities within Davenport/Scott County. 3. Which partners and providers will you reach out to, requesting they help recruit youth and families? 4. Speak to how you will identify and remove barriers to participation?