Leveraging Leaders in Child-Serving Legal System Reform

The impacts of justice-involvement on youth (e.g., increased mental health concerns and vulnerability to complex trauma) have led researchers and community providers to recognize the urgent need for systemic reform towards a trauma-informed organizational climate. Implementation strategies are techniques used to enhance changes in service environments. Using a unique ethnographic approach, discussions were harnessed and analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis to identify which implementation strategies were used by leaders to improve the culture and climate of their juvenile justice centers. A variety of implementation strategies were used by leaders to influence the culture and climate of their settings. Further, the strategies used map onto existing implementation strategy taxonomies previously used in implementation science efforts. These identified strategies, in turn, may be used to inform future implementation endeavors, support leaders in youth legal system change, and ultimately improve youth, family, and community outcomes.