Monday, April 29, 2013

Application Deadline Extended for New Youth in Custody Certificate Program

Application Deadline Extended for New
Youth in Custody Certificate Program


The Council of State Governments Justice Center (CSG Justice Center) and the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR) at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute have extended the application period for CJJR’s inaugural Youth in Custody Certificate Program. CJJR is partnering with the CSG Justice Center, the Missouri Department of Social Services' Division of Youth Services, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's National Center for Youth in Custody to offer this professional development opportunity, which is designed to help juvenile justice system leaders improve outcomes for youth in custody.

Advances in research have revealed much about how to best serve youth in the juvenile justice system. For example, research shows that low- and moderate-risk youth are best served in the community in non-residential placements, which produce better outcomes at lower costs. For higher-risk youth who require residential placements, facilities should be safe and operate according to best practices that include family engagement, use a treatment-oriented approach, promote non-residential program options, and engage other youth agencies. To ensure youth are served in a manner that promotes positive outcomes, jurisdictions must develop a strong assessment system, a robust continuum of effective services, and aftercare processes. This is particularly necessary for the highest-risk population of juvenile offenders.

Most efforts to date have focused on ensuring that low- and moderate-risk youth are not placed in juvenile justice facilities. Less attention has been paid to best practices for serving high-risk youth who are in the custody of the juvenile justice system. And while research has shown the juvenile justice field “what works” for this population, it is often difficult for juvenile justice systems to reform accordingly.

Although the Youth in Custody Certificate Program stresses the need for a continuum of services and placements throughout the juvenile justice system, the curriculum focuses on youth in post-adjudication custody. The program offers leaders the opportunity to develop capacity, effectuate change, and sustain and build on system improvements over time. Upon completing the coursework, participants will design a capstone project —a plan of action to be implemented within their organization or community that fosters collaboration among stakeholders and improves outcomes for youth in the custody of the juvenile justice system. Once faculty evaluates and approves the capstone projects, Georgetown University awards participants an Executive Certificate and offers technical assistance to implement the projects. In addition, alumni of the program become part of the CJJR Fellows Network.

The Youth in Custody Certificate Program will be held from Monday, August 19, to Friday, August 23, 2013, at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Applications were originally due by April 23, 2013; however, the deadline has been extended. The new deadline for applications is 11:59 p.m. (in the applicant's local time zone) on Friday, May 17, 2013. For more information about the Youth in Custody Certificate Program, click here.

Keeping your Disability Benefits While you work.

ESRO - Benefits! How to Keep Disability Benefits While You Work
When
Thursday May 16, 2013 from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM EDT
  

Where
Eastern Shore Regional Office
Eastern Shore Regional Office
Driving Directions
Most people with disabilities want to work, but worry they'll lose cash and medical benefits they depend on for survival. Fear of losing benefits is the greatest obstacle to employment for people with disabilities. Believe it or not, people really CAN work and keep essential benefits, using special rules known as "work incentives."

The Eastern Regional Office welcomes Michael Dalto!!!!

May 16, 2013
9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Eastern Shore Regional Office
(926 Snow Hill Road, Bldg. #100, Salisbury, MD)
Get more information
I can't make it
Please contact me with any questions or special requests: andrea.jones@maryland.gov
  
Sincerely,
  
Andrea Jones
Andrea Jones

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Haiti: We have not forgotten. A place to come together

A community coming together. Something as simple as a park, a place to enjoy nature, a place to enjoy family, and place to enjoy life can make a difference in a community.
cds






The 'B' in BEMA is non-negotiable

Open Society Foundations
Dear Friends,
Imagine being stopped and searched by the police because of the color of your skin. Then imagine it happening to you again and again.
This is the reality for law-abiding people like Paul, an educator and father. And Anthony, a video editor and father. And even Nick, who is himself a police officer.
They’re not alone. Black people in the United Kingdom are stopped and searched by police at seven times the rate of white people. Asians are stopped at twice the rate of whites. People of color in France, the Netherlands, and other countries are also stopped disproportionately.
If you think those numbers are staggering, what do you think ethnic profiling is doing to those who are subjected to it? What is it doing to our communities?
Ethnic Profiling in Europe
Ethnic profiling is not just ineffective. It fosters a more damaged, divided, and dangerous society.
Let’s end the denial about the real cost of this practice.
Thank you for your support,
James A. Goldston
Executive Director, Open Society Justice Initiative

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

PTSD May Strike Bostonians in Bombing, Lockdown Aftermath


April 23, 2013

Less than a week after Andrew King moved to Cambridge, Mass., from Little Rock, Ark., the 26-year-old biostatistician found himself living under lockdown, along with a million or so others, as law enforcement hunted for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect.
With no cable hookup and his cell phone's Internet connection on the fritz, he found out about the lockdown from a friend in Atlanta.
"As soon as I read the text, I ran back in my room and literally covered my head with the sheets," he said. "It was terrifying."
For several hours, King huddled in his unpacked apartment that bordered where the suspect was eventually apprehended, peering out the window at the legions of armed police performing a slow sweep of the streets and driveways. King's friend kept texting him updated news reports, which King tried to reconcile with what he was seeing outside his door.
"It was just unbelievably surreal," he said.
Now that the subject has been apprehended, the city has no doubt breathed a collective sigh of relief. But a nagging sense of insecurity will likely linger for many, said experts.
"There is a particular sense of vulnerability to this act of violence, because these men lived among us. It is one of those traumatic events that are at the very heart of post traumatic stress," said Dr. Paul Ragan, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.
After a traumatic five days that began with the marathon bombings and ended with the manhunt and lockdown, Ragan said he'd expect some percentage of Boston-area residents to experience some lingering level of anxiety, depression or fear.
Some will develop an "acute stress disorder," characterized by an emotional detachment, flashbacks, a heightened startle response, poor concentration and irritability, Ragan said. If such symptoms last for six months or longer, they could morph into full-blown post traumatic stress disorder.
"People think PTSD is a normal response to abnormal happenings, but that's not true," Ragan said. "It's classified as a severe anxiety disorder that requires treatment."
Ragan said he suspected the most deeply affected would continue to relive the events of the past week through nightmares, flashbacks and intrusive memories. He said they were also likely to develop a set of avoidance behaviors -- a marathoner might give up running, others might avoid Copley Square and other geographic reminders of the horrific events.
Although it is impossible to know how many people will be plagued by long-term psychological problems, Ragan said women, children and those with a genetic predisposition to psychological problems, including PTSD, or who lived through similar traumatic events, were at highest risk.
One of the biggest risk factors is proximity to the danger.
King's friend Taraq Abdallat was walking in Watertown to another friend's house for dinner shortly after the "shelter in place" order was lifted when he heard the gunfire exchange between the police and the alleged bomber. The pop of gunfire was so close that Abdallat feared for his life and hustled to get indoors.
Abdallat, who is originally from Jordan, described the experience as devastating.
"I can't feel secure the same way I used to before these terrible things happened. I don't feel secure in my hometown anymore," he said.
Studies find that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the highest percentage of both short- and long-term psychological disturbances were reported by people closest to the attacks with a progressively smaller percentage of people reporting disturbances the farther away they were from the attacks.
Dr. Alan Manevitz, a clinical psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York said many Boston residents might react differently because ubiquitous access to texting, Twitter and other forms of instantaneous communication might have given them a feeling of control, or "empowerment."

But Manevitz said Boston residents still needed to be vigilant in monitoring stress and other psychological symptoms. He recommended avoiding the endless news cycle and having open, honest discussions about feelings with friends, family and loved ones, especially children. And if symptoms become unmanageable, he recommended seeking professional help."Even with lockdown, people were fully engaged and aware of what was going on electronically, soothing each other, informing and also ... searching their own photos and videos to try to help the FBI. They were scared and traumatized, but there was also an informed calmness," he said.
Manevitz said he believed social media may be transforming the way we respond to catastrophic events. Social media, he said, allows people to feel less isolated. Although it can be the source of rumors and misinformation, it can also, he said, help people stay calm.
The Boston events in particular allowed the public to watch the results of the government's efforts unfold in real time, which many people found comforting, Manevitz said. Also, because the government directly appealed to the public for assistance, many people felt useful even if they weren't directly involved in the search for the bombers.
As for King, he said he felt shaky for a few days but said he must move on with his life.
"I was a little nervous on Saturday but by Sunday the streets were crowded again and people were in the park playing soccer and softball. I'm not having second thoughts about moving to Boston," he said.

The Happiest People Pursue the Most Difficult Problems


The Happiest People Pursue the Most Difficult Problems

The happiest people I know are dedicated to dealing with the most difficult problems. Turning around inner city schools. Finding solutions to homelessness or unsafe drinking water. Supporting children with terminal illnesses. They face the seemingly worst of the world with a conviction that they can do something about it and serve others.
Ellen Goodman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (and long-time friend), has turned grief to social purpose. She was distraught over the treatment of her dying mother. After leaving her job as a syndicated columnist, she founded The Conversation Project, a campaign to get every family to face the difficult task of talking about death and end-of-life care.
Gilberto Dimenstein, another writer-turned-activist in Brazil, spreads happiness through social entrepreneurship. When famous Brazilian pianist Joao Carlos Martins lost the use of most of his fingers and almost gave into deepest despair, Dimenstein urged him to teach music to disadvantaged young people. A few years later, Martins, now a conductor, exudes happiness. He has nurtured musical talent throughout Brazil, brought his youth orchestras to play at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, and has even regained some use of his fingers.
For many social entrepreneurs, happiness comes from the feeling they are making a difference.
I see that same spirit in business teams creating new initiatives that they believe in. Gillette's Himalayan project team took on the challenge of changing the way men shave in India, where the common practice of barbers using rusty blades broken in two caused bloody infections. A team member who initially didn't want to leave Boston for India found it his most inspiring assignment. Similarly, Procter & Gamble's Pampers team in Nigeria find happiness facing the problem of infant mortality and devising solutions, such as mobile clinics that sent a physician and two nurses to areas lacking access to health care.
In research for my book Evolve!, I identified three primary sources of motivation in high-innovation companies: mastery, membership, and meaning. Another M, money, turned out to be a distant fourth. Money acted as a scorecard, but it did not get people up-and-at 'em for the daily work, nor did it help people go home every day with a feeling of fulfillment.
People can be inspired to meet stretch goals and tackle impossible challenges if they care about the outcome. I'll never forget the story of how a new general manager of the Daimler Benz operations in South Africa raised productivity and quality at the end of the apartheid era by giving the workers something to do that they valued: make a car for Nelson Mandela, just released from prison. A plant plagued by lost days, sluggish workers, and high rates of defects produced the car in record time with close to zero defects. The pride in giving Mandela the Mercedes, plus the feeling of achievement, helped the workers maintain a new level of performance. People stuck in boring, rote jobs will spring into action for causes they care about.
Heart-wrenching emotion also helps cultivate a human connection. It is hard to feel alone, or to whine about small things, when faced with really big matters of deprivation, poverty, and life or death. Social bonds and a feeling of membership augment the meaning that comes from values-based work.
Of course, daunting challenges can be demoralizing at times. City Year corps members working with at-risk middle school students with failing grades from dysfunctional homes see improvement one day, only to have new problems arise the next. Progress isn't linear; it might not be apparent until after many long days of hard work have accumulated. It may show up in small victories, like a D student suddenly raising his hand in class because he understands the math principle. (I see this from service on the City Year board. You can find dozens of these stories on Twitter under#makebetterhappen.)
It's now common to say that purpose is at the heart of leadership, and people should find their purpose and passion. I'd like to go a step further and urge that everyone regardless of their work situation, have a sense of responsibility for at least one aspect of changing the world. It's as though we all have two jobs: our immediate tasks and the chance to make a difference.
Leaders everywhere should remember the M's of motivation: mastery, membership, and meaning. Tapping these non-monetary rewards (while paying fairly) are central to engagement and happiness. And they are also likely to produce innovative solutions to difficult problems.
More blog posts by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Rosabeth Moss Kanter

ROSABETH MOSS KANTER

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a professor at Harvard Business School and the
author of Confidence and SuperCorp. Her 2011 HBR article, "How Great Companies Think Differently," won a McKinsey Award for best article. Connect with her
on Facebook or at Twitter.com/RosabethKanter.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Media Training 27: Body Language

FEBRUARY 22, 2013 BY GERARD 

By Gerard Braud
What you don’t say is often as important or more important than what you do say, when you are talking to a reporter. How you stand, how you act, how you fidget, how you move, how you stutter, how you sit, and where you look, all says a lot about you.
The easiest thing for a reporter to determine in an interview is that you are nervous. When I started my journalism career at the age of 20, I was five-feet-six-and-a-half-inches tall and 124 pounds soaking wet. I did not consider myself intimidating in the least. So why is it that learned people, such as doctors, lawyers, engineers and elected officials got so nervous? Why did they fidget so much? Why did the sweat on their brow line and on their upper lip?
Actions such as sweating are harder to control because they are a result of nervousness. However, if you follow all of the advise in this book, if you hire a good media training coach and if you practice on a regular basis, then your confidence will go up and your nervousness will go down.
Folding and crossing your arms across your chest in an interview is almost always a sign that you are hiding something. If you are crossing your arms because you are cold, a better alternative is to wear warmer clothing. Sales people have long known that a customer with crossed arms will not buy anything form you. In the world of journalism, crossed arms means you are closed off to the premise of the reporter’s question and that you likely are not going to volunteer any information. Your body language may cause the reporter to probe even deeper because they can tell you are trying to hide something. If you are on television, the audience at home will also see this body language and may judge you harshly or relish in your discomfort. Many at home will sense that the reporter has “gotcha.”
Your eyes are the proverbial window to your soul.  I suggest that in daily life you get in the habit of looking people directly in the eye and maintaining an appropriate level of honest eye contact. Traditionally we’re taught that looking someone in the eye is a sign of honestly. Conversely, someone with high anxiety caused by not telling the truth usually has difficulty looking another person in the eye. You’ve likely heard people called “shifty-eyed.” When your eyes shift from side to side it is an obvious sign of anxiety, discomfort, and begins to make the journalist think that you have something to hide. Behavior like this is a perfect example of why role playing with a video camera is so important during media training. You may shift your eyes all the time and never realize it until you see yourself on camera. Reviewing your interview on camera lets you observe the behavior, then lets you work to correct the behavior.
Whether you look up or down and whether you look left or right also says a lot about you and what you are verbalizing, including whether you are “making it up” as you go.
If a right handed person looks up to the right while answering a question, they are generally being creative in crafting their answer and it may be perceived as a lie. If that same right handed person looks up and to their left when answering your question, it is generally perceived that they are recalling actual facts and telling the truth. Looking up is generally associated with questions about things that actually happened, things you saw or people you know.
Looking to the side has some of the same perceptions and generally applies to questions about sounds and things you have heard. Looking down to the left and right is a great deal less about telling a lie and more about feelings and recalling things such as a smell, touch or taste.
A left handed person performs these acts in the opposite direction of a right handed person. One of the classic case studies is former President Bill Clinton, who is left handed. As he made his infamous statement, “I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky,” he looked up and to the left, an indication that this lefty was a liar.
Other body language for lying includes touching your face, the tip of your nose, rubbing your eyes and covering your mouth. Essentially, these are all telltale signs that you are trying to hide something and hide, perhaps, behind your hand. Covering your mouth, for example, subtly says you don’t want me to see you tell a lie.
How you sit tells us a lot as well. As a rule, never sit in a chair that rocks and swivels. If you do, when you become nervous or uncomfortable, you will likely rock or swivel.
Never do an interview while sitting behind your desk. This is usually a place that is too comfortable and very intimate to you. As a result, you may speak perhaps too bluntly and openly because this is your comfort zone. You need to be honest, but being behind your desk may cause you to let your guard down. Instead of sitting behind your desk, pick two chairs in front of your desk.
Your posture while sitting says a lot. If you cup your hands behind your head, as well as if you lean back while doing this, it indicates that you perhaps feel superior to the person interviewing you. Akin to this, slouching in a chair during an interview could be an indication that you are cavalier, arrogant or feel superior to the interviewer. Many people who are described as “cocky” sit slouched or leaned back in their chairs. During my days on television, we affectionately called these people “cigar smokers” because they looked like the fat-cat, cigar smoking corporate executive made infamous in the black and white movies of the 1940s.
The position of your legs while you sit also says a lot. Women and men tend to have different sitting postures. Women who have been through some degree of etiquette training have been taught to place their feet on the floor and to cross one ankle behind the other. This is always a polished looked. Most women, when crossing their legs cross at the knee. The most common way women cross their legs might be called a scissors cross or inverted V cross, with the left foot pointed right and the right leg pointed left. From the knee, a woman’s feet spread like an inverted letter V. This cross is also generally accepted, but when nervous, most women begin to twist the ankle of the foot that is suspended above the floor. Some may even swing the suspended portion of the leg from their knee to their foot. The more nervous a woman is, the more the leg takes on the appearance of kicking.
Some women cross their legs at the knee, then wrap the upper foot behind their calf. This is a certain sign of being timid, embarrassed or lacking self-confidence. This is never an acceptable posture.
Somewhere between the ankle cross and the inverted V cross, is when a woman crosses her legs at the knees, but tilts both legs in the same direction. For example, if the upper leg is the right leg with the foot pointed toward the left, then the lower leg, which would be the left leg, would also have the foot to the left. In the world of etiquette, this type of leg cross is thought to be the more acceptable of the two ways women generally cross their legs, although etiquette purists say a woman should never cross her legs.
Also, when crossing their legs, women must also consider whether they are wearing pants or a skirt. If a skirt is worn, then the woman must also determine whether she is sending a message of sex appeal or sexiness. Some actresses and news anchors intentionally wear short skirts and sit in a posture designed to exude sex appeal. In the world of television and entertainment, sex sells and sexiness equals ratings, because most women secretly have a desire to be attractive like the woman on television, while most men are attracted to a woman that is more visually appealing. But while sexy may be right for the television anchor or actress, it is not the right look for a female corporate executive.
For men, sitting styles include feet close to one another on the floor with knees spread slightly, feet on the floor with knees spread wider than the feet, one leg on the floor with the ankle of the other leg placed on the knee, and sitting with knees crossed in the same way as described above as the women’s scissors or inverted V style.
The most offensive of these four male seating types is the legs spread wide open, essentially making his genitals the focal point of his posture. Many athletes tend to sit like this in interviews. While such posture might be fine in the locker room, it never works in an interview. The male sitting with his legs wide open sends a message of overconfidence and high superiority. And while that may intentionally or subliminally be the message the male is trying to send, a reporter or television audience may also interpret it as a sign of ignorance or stupidity.
A man crossing one ankle over his knee, almost in the shape of a number 4, is the most common posture for men and is often acceptable in interviews, but it is not without its problems. The exposed sole of your shoe could prove to be an embarrassment, especially if it turns out that a hole has started to develop on the shoe sole below the ball of your foot. Other times, you may have stepped in gum, which leaves a mark on the shoe sole. There are also multi-cultural considerations when a man sits like this. In many Asian and Muslim cultures, exposing the sole of your shoe is a great insult, so think carefully about your audience before sitting like this.
Men older than 40 tend to be more likely to cross their legs at the knee, in the inverted V style, than younger men. From a body language perspective, many people perceive this seating style to be more feminine, especially in younger men, even to the point of being stereotyped as being homosexual. For younger men, such posture may even be perceived as a sign of weakness. For older men, there is sometimes a degree of maturity or wisdom associated with this type of leg crossing. A key indicator of whether this type of leg crossing has a feminine or masculine appearance depends upon how far out and how high up the raised foot is. The closer the raised foot is to the low leg, the more feminine the appearance. The more raised the foot is in relation to the lower leg, the more masculine the appearance. This more raised approach is really a cross between the number 4 style and the inverted V style. One advantage this has to the pure number 4 style is that it points the shoe sole to the floor, shielding under-shoe blemishes and eliminating cultural insensitivity.
For both men and women, the best posture for sitting is to bring your back slightly away from the back of the chair, which also pushes your posterior slightly forward on the seat of the chair. With your body weight shifted forward, it virtually forces your feet to the floor, rather than having your legs crossed. Once your feet are comfortably on the floor, men generally slide one foot slightly more forward than the other. Women will do the same in some cases, but in most cases will now find it more comfortable to cross one foot behind the other. When attempting this style, you should not be sitting on the edge of the chair, but just slightly away from the back of the chair.
This slightly forward seating posture also makes it more possible for you to talk with your hands during an interview. Talking with your hands, especially with your palms in an upward position, is a sign of openness and honesty. It lets you gesture with palms up to the interviewer when directing outward expressions, while gesturing with palms up toward yourself for personal stories or to demonstrate personal accountability.
Among the things never to do with your hands in an interview is to flail them or pass them in front of your face. You should also avoid crossing your hands on your lap. Flailing is an indication that you are somewhat sporadic and lack focus. Crossing your hands over your lap and genitals indicates weakness for men and women. For men, having their hands crossed over their genitals is a big sign of feeling vulnerable.
Not only is crossing your hands over your genitals an incorrect posture when you are sitting, it is also incorrect when standing. Commonly referred to as the fig leaf position, hands over the genitals for a male, again, is a sign of weakness and vulnerability, as well as weakness for a woman. Many people instinctively cross their hands over their genitals when standing because this is the way they have taken so many group photos from the time they were in grade school. As an adult, it is time for you to learn that this is an old trick used by photographers to get children to stand still and keep their hands to themselves long enough for the photographer to snap the exposure. The trick kept Billy from punching Bobby on the arm while the children were positioned as a group. And from a photo perspective, crossed hands is never good photography.
Also while standing, you should avoid swaying back and forth. This demonstrates the same type of nervousness as swaying or swiveling in a chair. The preferred posture when standing is to have your feet spread slightly or to place your weight on your dominant leg.
Many people are also confused about what to do with their hands during an interview when they are standing. In addition to avoiding the fig leaf position, you should never put your hands in your pockets. Placing your hands on your hips comes naturally for some people, but from a body language perspective it is perceived as a sign of arrogance or superiority. Generally the best default position is to have your hands at your side then raise them between your waist and chest for gesturing. When not gesturing, a good standby position is you have your hands lying one inside the other just above the waist, waiting for the next opportunity to talk with your hands and gesture.
To wrap things up, your words will always be important, but whether the reporter or his audience believes you will depend in part on your body language.

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