The NCJFCJ 2024 National Conference on Juvenile Justice was held in Cleveland on March 17-20, 2024.

With funding from the Office for Victims of Crime, the NCJFCJ provided training and technical assistance to the Cuyahoga Court of Common Pleas Juvenile Division to enhance juvenile and family court responses to human trafficking.

The NCJFCJ, with funding from the State Justice Institute, selected the Hamilton County Juvenile Court as an Enhanced Juvenile Justice Guidelines demonstration site, which works on evaluating current programs and creating avenues for diversion.

As part of the Implementation Sites Project, the NCJFCJ provides targeted training and technical assistance, and site visits, to Portage County, to improve practice in the handling of child abuse and neglect cases, reduce the number of children in foster care, and improve outcomes for children in care.

The NCJFCJ’s Field-Generated Strategies to End the Criminalization of Minor Victims of Sex Trafficking project, funded by the Office for Victims of Crime, provides direct training and technical assistance to the Summit and Medina County Human Trafficking Youth Prevention and Decriminalization Project and to Gracehaven, Inc. in Columbus, to broaden its network of comprehensive case management and residential group home services in the state.

The NCJFCJ hosted a multidisciplinary training on the interconnections between animal abuse and domestic violence, hosted by Franklin County Domestic Relations, Juvenile Court Judge James Brown, and Magistrate Joshua Werning, in Columbus.

With funding support from the NoVo Foundation, the NCJFCJ provides training and technical assistance to the Lucas County Juvenile Court to identify and promote promising practices in juvenile and family courts to address child sex trafficking.

The NCJFCJ hosted the Tune-In Tuesday: Montgomery County Natural Helpers Program webinar, which highlighted how the program connects court-involved youth with mentors. The Natural Helpers Program also provides mentoring to court-involved youth to build pathways beyond treatment by connecting the youth with pre-screened and trained volunteers.

Multidisciplinary campus professionals representing student conduct, law enforcement, and prevention participated in the Office on Violence Against Women’s Campus Training and Technical Assistance Institute (TTI), an opportunity extended to each campus grantee five times over the course of three years. These in-person institutes combined with webinars and intensive, customized support from national experts are designed to help college and university campuses enhance their capacity to address domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking on campus.

Judge Anthony (Tony) Capizzi (Ret.) of Dayton, Judge David E. Stucki (Ret.) of Brewster, and Judge James A. Ray (Ret.) of Waterville are NCJFCJ Past Presidents. Judge Capizzi also served as a 2024 Days on the Hill Delegate. Judge David A. Hejmanowski of Delaware and Judge James W. Brown of Columbus are NCJFCJ Board Directors. Judge Denise Navarre Cubbon (Ret.) of Toledo is the NCJFCJ’s Amicus Council Chair.