In conjunction with the annual PbS Agency Coordinators Training (ACT), the PbS Awards Night took place in New Orleans on Friday, Aug. 5, with nearly 100 guests donning their best attire to recognize and celebrate each other. Sponsored by the PbS Education and Employment Foundation, the PbS Awards Night honors juvenile justice professionals as well as young award recipients. Am ...
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PbS Celebrates National Juvenile Justice Award Winners
The 2022 Performance-based Standards (PbS) annual Agency Coordinators Training (ACT) took place in New Orleans from Thursday, Aug. 4 – 6, bringing juvenile justice professionals together from states across the nation. Late Thursday afternoon, PbS staff including Executive Director Kim Godfrey Lovett and PbS Deputy Executive Director Akin Fadeyi welcomed guests at a reception i ...

2022 PbS Employment Matching Award Recipients Work Toward a Better Future
Congratulations to the 2022 PbS Employment Matching Award recipients. Established in 2017 to encourage meaningful work opportunities for young people in the juvenile justice system, this year’s 14 recipients will be awarded up to $1,000 to match their summer season earnings. The award recipients are from the five following facilities: Circleville Juvenile Correctional Facilit ...
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. ...

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 ...

Stephen's Story: Changing Your Stars
Meet Stephen, former recipient of the PbS Education and Employment Foundation Scholarship and Employment Matching Awards. He describes the PbS Scholarship as a "bridge," one that allowed him to become the first young person in the Oregon Youth Authority to pursue his master's degree: "I definitely think the scholarships are that first catalyst. The first step in my success was ...

Why Youth Justice Matters Every Month
Unlike many juvenile justice professionals, my role as Program Assistant at the Performance-based Standards Learning Institute (PbS) has very little direct interaction with the young people entangled in the system. Compared to the folks with the privilege of developing personal and meaningful relationships with the youths whom we serve, I am probably more detached from the huma ...

Nashville Extends a Southern Welcome to PbS Folks
On Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, more than 50 of our juvenile justice colleagues from across the country met in Nashville, Tennessee to kick off the annual three-day PbS Agency Coordinators Training (ACT). PbS Executive Director Kim Godfrey-Lovett and PbS Deputy Director Akin Fadeyi were delighted to greet guests at the door of the Welcome Reception at the Omni Hotel, before surrendering the microphone to Davidson County’s own Mr. Antonio Bratcher. The Facility Director at Youth Opportunity Investments, LLC, Mr. Bratcher hosted the event with authentic Southern hospitality. While the chicken-and-waffle bar was a close runner-up, the best part of the night was witnessing old friends and new faces come together in-person for the first time since the 2019 PbS ACT in Boston, Massachusetts.

PbS Announces National Juvenile Justice Award Winners
Nashville, TN — Performance-based Standards (PbS) held their annual PbS Awards Night on Aug. 13, 2021, honoring and celebrating the many efforts of our juvenile justice partners to improve the lives and opportunities of young people in their care.

Work Works: The Value of Employment for Justice-Involved Youths
Employment assistance is listed by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) as one of the keys to turning around the lives of young people involved with juvenile justice systems. To promote and support work opportunities for young people, the PbS Employment Matching Award was created in 2017.