Foundation

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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.

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.

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.

They are future engineers and entrepreneurs, artists and athletic trainers, mechanics and mathematicians. The youths who applied to the 2021 PbS Scholarship Award expressed a wide range of ambitions and aspirations in their applications to advance their educational goals. But a common thread ran through every youth application: Hope. Hope for opportunities, hope to create a meaningful life and hope to give back.

“I want to be the one who breaks the chain of poverty in my family. My plan when I get out is to get a job to help me stay focused and out of trouble,” one young man wrote to us in his application for the 2021 PbS Reentry Award.

The Performance-based Standards (PbS) Reentry Award was established in 2016 to support youths as they return to living in the community. Recipients are given a gift card for a nearby department store to purchase household items, linens, clothes for work and other things to ease their reentry transition. Ideally, the gift cards are provided to staff to present to the youths shor ...

We’re excited to announce that the PbS Education and Employment Foundation 2021 Scholarship Award is now open! PbS invites all staff and youths from PbS-participating facilities and programs to apply.

This year the Annie E. Casey Foundation has generously donated $10,000 to go towards scholarships. The awards of $1,000 or $2,000 will be given to help offset the costs of university degrees or college credits and support efforts to further post-secondary education. So far the Scholarship Awards have helped 15 individuals earn bachelor or master’s degrees, or college credits.