by Rosemary Ricciardelli, Evan Norton, Claire Boudrot, Alejandro Ramirez
Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #19 - Excellence in Juvenile Justice Policy and Practice | Article 8 (ACJ19-A008)
Article 8: An Evidence-Informed Way Forward: Building Research Capacity at Texas Juvenile Justice Department (ACJ19-A008) by Rosemary Ricciardelli, Evan Norton, Claire Boudrot & Alejandro Ramirez-Cano
Abstract
There are two purposes to every employee, to do their work and to improve how their work is done. At Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD), the desire to support the youth and employees runs deep into the organization. To better able TJJD to support the youth and staff, we strove to develop a research strategy that 1) provides usable evidence to inform practices and respond to identified needs while 2) building a research capacity within the organization that enables change from within to address the complexities TJJD faces now, in 2025. In the current article, we detail our strategy, outlining how data collection is to be streamlined to fight survey and analysis fatigue and increase effectiveness, how research is to include mixed methods approaches, and how we will build research capacity by empowering the frontline through MicroResearch. The benefits to the operations of TJJD, for the youth, and for the staff are discussed.
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