Children’s Justice Conference (CJC)
SAVE THE DATE, April 22-23, 2024
As the largest child welfare related conference in the Pacific Northwest, the annual Children’s Justice Conference (CJC) provides professionals from multiple disciplines a unique opportunity to receive core and advanced training and skill development in the identification, investigation, and treatment of child maltreatment.
Project & Activities
Pursuant to its recommendations and the assistance received from the National Center, the Washington State CJTF has been involved in numerous projects and activities since its initial grant. These include:
- Annual Children’s Justice Conferences (1993-present).
- Funded Columbia Legal Services’ Homeless Youth Advocacy project (2012-2014). This project sought to improve the judicial, administrative, and investigative handling of child abuse and neglect cases, status offense cases, and juvenile offender cases that involve homeless children.
- Funded the “Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Protocol (Project Respect) for 2011-2013, a project that was coordinated between the Center for Children and Youth Justice and Youth Care to develop statewide protocols incorporating best practices for responding to and handling cases involving prostituted youth.
- Funded the “Sunnyside’s Promise” Gang Related Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking project (2010-2013) to provide collaborative resources for community professionals in working with youth who are exploited by gangs in a rural area of Washington State.
- Funded and reviewed the “Take 5” Project – “Trauma Affects Kids Everywhere” a program to help foster parents promote resilience in abused children (2009-2011).
- Surveyed stakeholders, including tribal representatives, in the child welfare system to obtain recommendations for future CJTF projects (2008).
- Developed and implemented the First Responders’ Training and Protocols for Serious Physical Abuse and Child Fatality Cases for six regional trainings, in partnership with the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (2005-2007).
- Established a web page at the University of Washington School of Law Child Advocacy Center (2002-2004).
- Selected and funded the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys to conduct videotape pilot projects for child victim interviews (2003-2005).
- Contracted with the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission to provide trainings entitled “Effective Team Investigations of Child Abuse Cases – Protocol Implementation and Interdisciplinary Team Trainings (2001-2003).
- Collected evaluations and recommendations from stakeholders statewide to help improve the children’s justice system (1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006).
- Development of a model response project aimed at the handling of child sexual abuse/exploitation cases (1989-1991, 1991-1993).
- Conducted an analysis and review of the system and considered recommendations for serving children in three specific areas of child abuse/neglect and exploitation to ensure that cases handled reduced additional trauma to the child victim, ensured that procedural fairness to the accused and to all affected persons was provided (1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006, 2009 and 2012).
- Established a contract with a third-party evaluator for a comprehensive review of pilot sites for the model response project.
- Development of a training video for mandatory reporters that was produced and distributed statewide (1999-2001).
- Financially supported the Unified Family Court project, a statewide effort to assist families through the family court system (1999-2000).
- Provided funding to mini grants targeting the resolution of child abuse issues in San Juan, Benton/Franklin, Island, Pierce, and Snohomish counties (2000-2001).
- Funding was provided to establish and implement the Child and Youth Advocacy Center at the University of Washington Law School (1996-1999).
- Secured the unlimited copyright authority for two videos, “The Child as a Witness” and “Unspeakable Acts”, sent to all Juvenile court judges.
- Provided outreach, training, and technical assistance to 28 federally recognized and nine Washington State recognized Indian Tribes.