PbS honors 2012 Barbara Allen-Hagen Award Winners
The PbS Learning Institute (PbS Li) honored Cuyahoga Hills Juvenile Correctional Facility of Ohio and Weber Valley Detention Center of Utah as the winners of the 2012 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award during a ceremony Saturday in Denver. The PbS awards are given annually to the one youth correctional facility and the one detention center that best exemplify the core principle of the Performance-based Standards (PbS) program: treating all youths in custody as one of our own.
The winners were selected in a competitive application process open to all PbS facilities across the country. More than 30 high-quality applications were considered and all demonstrated how implementation of the national PbS program resulted in positive outcomes for youths, staff and families. PbS sets national standards for facility quality of life and rehabilitation services and provides facilities with a blueprint for daily operations that includes performance outcome measures, best practices and processes to achieve the standards. PbS won the prestigious Innovations in American Government Award from the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University in 2004 for uniquely and effectively improving conditions and quality of life in facilities for youths.
The winners of this year’s award were selected for changing the facility culture and aligning practices and services with the current research showing the developmental differences and needs of youths. The leadership in both facilities showed extraordinary dedication to improving their facilities.
"We’re here tonight to recognize individuals and programs who, amidst all the demands of daily operations, budget cuts and shifting priorities, intentionally set out on a path of change to make the facilities they run better for staff, youths and families and who accomplished their goals,' said PbS Li Executive Director Kim Godfrey.
The PbS award was created in 2007 to honor Barbara Allen-Hagen in her retirement from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Barbara’s dedication to improving the quality of life in facilities for young offenders kept PbS' focus on youths for all decisions and innovations and helped drive PbS to its current success. PbS currently is used in 26 states and the District of Columbia and was a winner of the 2004 Innovations in American Government Award from the Ash Institute at Harvard University for providing juvenile justice agencies with an effective and unique self-improvement system. PbS Li has also recently expanded the PbS model of performance evaluation in secure facilities to community residential programs through its Community-based Standards (CbS) program. CbS is currently in being implemented in eight states.
Resources
For more Information on PbS, visit http://pbstandards.org/pbs
View our online slideshow of the 2012 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award Ceremony
