Hunter Hurst – National Center for Juvenile Justice

1. Preferred Name,  Title, and How Many Years You’ve Worked with CIYJ?

Hunter Hurst, 8 Years.

2. What is the most challenging aspect of your role? What aspect is the most rewarding? (Feel free to address either or both questions.)

We are collaboratively working with CIYJ to improve how agencies measure performance with the reentry of young people to their homes and communities after some time in a residential setting. The reentry process is often complex, with multiple agencies having different roles and frequently different data systems, often creating challenges for obtaining information to calculate and sustain measures.  Working alongside CIYJ, we have had success in helping several jurisdictions create juvenile reentry data improvement plans. CIJY automates the plans using its secure website and demonstration sites, which have been used to map their progress and celebrate significant successes in one of the more challenging areas for telling the collective stories of young people transitioning back home and to their lives as emerging adults.

3. Looking back over the past two decades, what do you consider to be CIYJ’s most impactful contributions to the youth justice space?

Since its founding, CIYJ has helped to bring structure where there was nothing uniform or national in scope to help youth-serving institutions harness information and data to improve conditions for young people and their agency performance continuously in some of the most challenging environments, such as a facility struggling with staff climate and with how to redirect youth behavior towards positive youth development.

4. Can you share a particularly poignant success story, milestone, or impactful moment that CIYJ has achieved during your tenure with us?

At one point working in a large urban juvenile probation department, I saw how energized court services staff became when reaching youth in the field with questions about their experiences on probation and reentering the community after a period of time in secure detention.  Using CIYJ kiosks the staff were able to bring data directly to young people in the field. One short year later they were able to access data dashboards to compare how their young people responded to a series of carefully researched questions to the medians and averages reported across all participating states and jurisdictions.

5. What message would you like to convey to our supporters, partners, and advocates as CIYJ celebrates this significant anniversary?

I continue to be inspired by CIYJ’s impact and focus on using data to inform accurate stories about young people experiencing the deep end of what they need to succeed as they build reentry plans and during the early phases of their return home. The system and I have seen the difference in action and results in every journey I’ve had with CIYJ staff working to improve the national data infrastructure in youth justice.

6. What inspired you to pursue a career dedicated to youth justice?

I grew up in a family of social workers who assisted young people under supervision or in residential care during the 1960s and 1970s and later on began to strongly believe in the need for better data and research to support young people navigating the justice system.  I was further motivated by my own experiences growing up and remained inspired as I raised a teen son and helped him navigate a challenging world.

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