Friday, July 20, 2018

A Simple E-Mail Was the Start of a Great Partnership That Benefits Local Children


By Elvin Gonzalez, Family Division Administrator, Berrien County Trial Court

It was the fall of 2016.  The e-mail from Judge Mabel J. Mayfield, our Presiding Family Division Judge, said, “Here is an interesting grant opportunity we may want to pursue.”  Her e-mail was the beginning of a great adventure for our family division and all those in Berrien County with an interest in the child protective system. 

The ‘interesting grant opportunity’ that Judge Mayfield passed along was the chance to operate an Implementation Site Project for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ).  The NCJFCJ is an organization whose mission is “to provide all judges, courts, and related agencies involved with juvenile, family, and domestic violence cases with the knowledge and skills to improve the lives of the families and children who seek justice.”  This group has developed best practices for child protective proceedings entitled “Enhanced Resource Guidelines: Improving Court Practice in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases.”  They have selected implementation sites across the country in which courts receive technical assistance from the NCJFCJ to put these guidelines into practice.  In late 2016 we were one of five sites across the country chosen as an Implementation Site Project.

The timing of this opportunity could not have been better for our court.  Over the past 15 years, the Berrien County Trial County-Family Division has implemented several progressive, evidence-based reforms on the delinquency side of our juvenile division.  Almost half of all of the delinquency petitions that are filed are being diverted to informal proceedings.  We have implemented a wide range of treatment options for our youth on probation, from short-term group/family therapy classes to home-based therapy.  We are very proud of the work we have done in these areas and the positive performance outcomes we have accomplished and felt poised to turn our sights to the child protective side and see what improvements could be made there.  The Implementation Site Project gave us a perfect opportunity to do this.  With the encouragement and assistance of our lead judge, Judge Brian Berger, we completed the application form and were selected as an implementation site.

Once chosen as an implementation site, we became part of a three-year partnership with the NCJFCJ for the purpose of implementing best practices in our child protective proceedings.  We have been assigned a liaison from NCJFCJ to assist us in our efforts, as well as various technical assistance expert consultants and the ability to network with other model sites across the country.  The first year of the project was dedicated to assessing our current performance and setting our goals.  In the second year, NCJFCJ is working with us to do trainings on topics such as becoming trauma-informed and providing us with opportunities to align our practices, policies, and procedures with nationally recognized best practice standards.  The third year will be utilized to implement a “dream project” that we would like to achieve, as well as continue overall improvement of our processes.

The assessment process began in March 2017 when our NCJFCJ liaison came to Berrien County and observed our child protective courtroom proceedings, met with our stakeholders, and reviewed files for three days.  The liaison issued a report of her observations that was very helpful to us in identifying our strengths and the areas that needed improvement.

Next, Judge Berger convened a group of representatives of all our stakeholders in the child welfare process in Berrien County.  The group includes: prosecutors, Department of Health and Human Services representatives, parents’ attorneys, guardians ad litem, attorney referees, court administrators, deputy registers, private providers, foster parents, community mental health representatives, court appointed special advocates (CASAs), and local university experts in the field of trauma and child welfare.  We continue our efforts to have a parent and youth representative on the group, to have client voices at the table. 

This group has been meeting monthly for over a year now.  Judge Berger started us out by developing a “wish list” of items we would like to improve in our system.  We then took that list and broke it into categories.  As a result, we ended up with the following agreed-upon goals: 

1) improve services for our families;
2) provide mediation in our child protective proceedings;
3) become a trauma-informed court;
4) enhance performance measures data collection;
5) improve court proceedings. 

We have subgroups for each of these areas, and work within these subgroups is proceeding diligently.

This has been a great adventure for all of us.  Bringing us together to productively tackle tough issues and problems has opened up communication and collaboration between the various stakeholders.  In the past, communication barriers and silo mentalities have kept groups from working well together – even though our goals are the same: providing safe and supportive homes for children and the best opportunities for success to our families.

We have already accomplished some important things.  With the partnership of the State Court Administrative Office and Lakeland Hospital in St. Joseph, Michigan, we hosted a regional trauma training on April 19, 2018.  A number of nationally-recognized speakers presented at this training, and registration was at full capacity.  We have evaluated our data collection methods and begun collecting additional data variables that will be helpful in assessing our outcomes.  Subgroups are working to gather information to move forward in the other areas we have identified: using mediation, having children in court, and enhancing the assessment and trauma-informed resources for children and parents. 

Perhaps most importantly, there is a sense of excitement and optimism around the project that is infectious and contributes to our progress and commitment to success.

We are about halfway through this project now and want to acknowledge our judges for being great “seed planters,” encouraging taking risks and being open to change.
 We also appreciate our community partners who have demonstrated a willingness to ask tough questions and explore possibilities of reform and alignment with national standards.  And we are appreciative of the excellent technical assistance provided by our NJFCJ partnership and look forward to the successful implementation of the changes that ultimately benefit the families we serve.



Elvin Gonzalez has served for the past 16 years as the Family Division Administrator of the Berrien County Trial Court in Michigan.  He has oversight over all juvenile justice programs and services in Berrien County, including the Juvenile Intake Unit, the Court Services Division, the Juvenile Detention Center with secure detention, and residential treatment programs.  Additionally, he oversees the Probate Unit of the Family Division.
Mr. Gonzales has more than 30 years of experience working in the juvenile justice field, including detention facilities, residential treatment, intensive probation services, and management of Probation and Court Services Departments in DuPage County, Illinois, and in Michigan.
He has served as a progressive leader in organizational change management in the juvenile justice field by championing evidence-based practices and data-driven decision making.