Breaking News

A new and well considered path continues to be laid by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), thanks to strong leadership and its renewed focus on services to children and families balanced between crime prevention and crime fighting.

Governor Crist and DJJ Secretary Walter McNeil announced today that former Lt. Governor Frank Brogan has been appointed chairman of the Juvenile Justice Blueprint Commission.  Brogan is the current president of Florida Atlantic University and is a former elected Florida Commissioner of Education.

The Blueprint Commission as envisioned by DJJ will be a time limited group of 25 private and public stakeholders appointed by Secretary McNeil to develop a full body of recommendations to improve the lives of at-risk youth while ensuring public safety. The on-going development of the Commission continues to be supported through a collaboration between DJJ, Children’s Campaign, Inc., Florida Juvenile Justice Association, and the Florida Network of Youth and Family Services.

Secretary McNeil said, “The cooperative efforts of the Department and its stakeholders can only serve to create a more cohesive and balanced system of juvenile justice in Florida.”

To that end Secretary McNeil is reaching out to various stakeholder groups for membership on the Commission. And once convened, the Commission will conduct “citizen listening tours” to allow opportunities in communities across the state for the expression of ideas, comments, concerns and suggestions.

“The Blueprint Commission concept was central to our juvenile justice public policy initiative as proposed by our citizen leaders,” said Roy Miller, President of Children’s Campaign, Inc.  “It is what we have hoped for and worked toward since the new DJJ administration took office.”

The appointment of a respected citizen leader the caliber of Frank Brogan comes on the heels of DJJ rolling out their new mission, vision, and guiding principles. The revised mission of DJJ emphasizes a commitment to public safety by reducing juvenile delinquency through a balanced approach of prevention, intervention and treatment in order to strengthen families and turn around the lives of troubled youth.  The mission statement it replaced spoke only to protecting the public safety.

The new mission is designed to achieve a vision embracing that the children and families of Florida will live in safe and nurturing communities that provide for their needs, recognize their strengths and support their success.

The updated DJJ mission and vision was informed by public comment invited after considering a body of information generated by a joint project of the Eckerd Family Foundation and Children’s Campaign, Inc. Hundreds of citizens and stakeholders participated in a series of roundtable discussions reinforced by a public opinion poll of 800 voters.   

To read the final revised DJJ mission, vision, and guiding principles click here.

To read the press release about the appointment of Frank Brogan as Chair of the Blueprint Commission, click here.

The Blueprint Commission will raise the visibility of the new mission and vision and through its deliberations will support its full adoption into the daily operations and actions of DJJ.