Cohort 7 Model Demonstration Projects

University of Minnesota,
Institute on Community Integration

Making a Map: Finding My Way Back (MAP Project)

The University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration (ICI), in partnership with Ramsey County Corrections, Amicus Inc., St. Paul Public Schools, postsecondary programs, Ramsey-county community-based and faith-based organizations, and the Department of Employment and Economic Development, is implementing a comprehensive, evidence-based project to support juvenile offenders transitioning from juvenile justice to secondary school, postsecondary education, and employment opportunities in their St. Paul and surrounding metropolitan communities.

Making A Map: Finding My Way Back (MAP) project goals are to:

Develop reintegration planning facilitated by an already developed and tested reintegration framework designed to support interagency collaboration

Implement Check And Connect (C&C), a nationally validated research-based mentoring and student engagement intervention model

Implement a personalized approach and strategies to support youth’s development of specific goals concerning their academic development, positive behaviors, study skills, school completion, postsecondary education and employment preparation using the Expanding the Circle curriculum developed at ICI

Conduct a comprehensive evaluation that fully documents the goals, activities, outputs, and outcomes of the demonstration model

Create a sustainable model through extensive interagency collaboration that continues the positive and effective strategies and interventions used during the project’s implementation.

An interagency steering committee will maintain ongoing interagency collaboration through meetings, monitoring the C&C training and model implementation, adjusting reintegration plans, and strengthening the collaborative community approach.