Policies to Help Teens in Trouble

Research shows that young people who use drugs or alcohol are much more likely to get into trouble with the law. The U.S. juvenile justice system currently holds more than two million teens – as many as four out of five of them have drug or alcohol problems.

Yet alcohol and substance abuse problems among America's youth frequently go undetected. Many young people end up back on the street, caught in a vicious cycle of drugs, alcohol, and crime that they don't know how to escape.

What do they need? More treatment. Better treatment. More than treatment.

That's the mantra of Reclaiming Futures, a five-year, $21 million initiative launched by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in response to the “treatment gap” in the juvenile justice system. The project brings together courts, police, detention facilities, treatment counselors, businesses, schools, and families to reinvent how 10 communities across the country are working with young people in need.

As a part of RWJF's Connect Project, Burness brought representatives from all 10 of the Reclaiming Futures sites to Washington, D.C., to share the challenges they face and lessons they've learned with policymakers on Capitol Hill.

Connect is one of only a few efforts under way in the philanthropic world to help foundation grantees build relationships with members of Congress and other policymakers. RWJF grantees, like those from Reclaiming Futures, work at the local level to address some of the nation's most critical health care needs. With Burness’ help, they brought the lessons of that work to Washington, educating members of Congress about the health challenges facing people in their own districts or states and illustrating how local institutions and constituents are tackling those problems.

Burness Communications has been involved with Connect from its inception in the late 1990s and continues to play a central role in the program's evolution. Burness acts as the program's primary link to Washington, D.C., spearheading Connect activities in the nation's capital. To date, more than one thousand RWJF grantees have benefited from reaching out to their members of Congress.