A creative, original song titled, “Weather Ambassador,” from the Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Center is the focus of this 2022 PbS Kids Got Talent Contest Finalist Spotlight. Opening with a simple and elegant guitar strum, the rhythmic, nearly hypnotizing voice of the artist blends with a background track to deliver a song that one Selection Committee member calls, “A total Vibe!”
Awards

Lyrical Voices Join In Perfect Melody With A Powerful Message
This 2022 PbS Kids Got Talent Contest Finalist Spotlight features two talented artists from Copper Lake/Lincoln Hills School, Wisconsin Division of Juvenile Corrections. Paired up for a duo original song titled “In the Night,” these young singers backed by the sound of a soulful, tender piano arrangement wowed the selection committee with their performance.

Juvenile Corrections Center–Lewiston Selected as Finalist for the 2022 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award
Named a finalist in the corrections category for the 2022 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award, Juvenile Corrections Center- Lewiston (JCC-Lewiston) made remarkable and significant progress reducing suicidal and self-injury behaviors of young people in residential care. The focus on reducing self-harm and suicidal ideation became an immediate priority for JCC-Lewiston, a facility for ...

Powerful Words about Fate and Destiny from a Young Writer
This week’s 2022 PbS Kids Got Talent Contest Finalist Spotlight is a spoken poem titled "Destiny" from Central Oklahoma Juvenile Center. Delivered with confidence and poise, without added dramatic flair that would have detracted from the spare prose, the words conveyed a message that lingered long after this talented young writer delivered the final line.

Congratulations to the 2022 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award Finalists!
Performance-based Standards (PbS) is proud to announce the finalists for the 2022 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award, recognizing facilities that best exemplify PbS’ commitment to treating every young person as one of our own. Each finalist uniquely demonstrated how data can be used to improve outcomes for young people and staff by integrating research-based practices. They focused ...
Congratulations to the 2022 PbS Kids Got Talent Contest Finalists!
The annual PbS Kids Got Talent Contest was established in 2015 to celebrate and showcase the creative talents of young people in participating correction, detention, assessment and community residential programs. This year, PbS received over 55 entries from 63 young people in 22 different facilities—and wow, what an impressive group of applicants! After careful review and cons ...
2022 Reentry Award Winners - Making the Transition as Smooth as Possible
The 2022 PbS Reentry Award recipients are inherently unique in their respective journeys toward independence, yet fundamentally similar in what they need—the essentials most people take for granted. Food and shelter. Basic hygiene products. Clothes and shoes. For those seeking employment, interview attire. For future students, day planners and transportation to and from school. ...

Now Accepting Applications for the 2022 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award
Performance-based Standards (PbS) is now collecting applications for the 2022 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award. We hope you take the opportunity to share and celebrate the improvements and achievements of your facility by submitting an application.

The 2022 PbS Kids Got Talent Contest is Now Open!
Performance-based Standards (PbS) is pleased to announce that the 8th annual Kids Got Talent Contest is now open! This contest is such a joy for our team and every year, we are impressed with not only the talented youths but the staff that support their creative abilities. We always enjoy hearing about programs holding their own talent contests as incentives for young people or ...

Honoring Coach Russ: A Champion for Juvenile Justice Change
Russ believed in change – the ability for failing systems to transform and evolve, the power of leadership to make a difference and especially in the strength of disadvantaged young people to turn their lives around. In 2011, after decades of public service in Kansas as deputy sheriff, director of the Southwest Kansas Regional Detention Center, district magistrate judge and com ...