Around the country, rates of incarceration for girls are accelerating. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that the involvement of girls in the juvenile justice system increased sharply in the past two decades, by 83% between 1985 and 2000, compared to the 34% increase involving males.

Some researchers have begun noticing a correlation between girls' sexual victimization and their involvement in the criminal justice system. This link is often associated with coping behavior used by girls, such as running away, drug use, and prostitution for economic survival, which leads them to involvement in the juvenile justice system.

In our work with the Girl Scouts, we have learned of several local communities that are serving incarcerated girls with ages ranging from 8-20. Talking to program managers and direct service staff, the link between sexual violence and juvenile delinquency is increasingly clear; girls in the system, based on anecdotal evidence, have higher rates of victimization than the much publicized 1:3 ratio in the general population.

Although we can't report any specific results of our Girl Scouts USA Project Anti-Violence Education evaluation yet, this is an issue we are continuing to explore, think about, and hope to find ways to impact positively.

Resources:

Siegel, Jane and Linda Williams (2003). The relationship between child sexual abuse and female delinquency. Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency, 40(1), 71-94.
Simkins, Sandra and Sarah Katz (2002). Criminalizing Abused Girls. Violence Against Women, 8(12), 1474-1499.
U.S. Department of Justice (2004). Juvenile Court Statistics 2000. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

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From Leah:

Several of us have very pleasant memories of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, despite a recent tongue-in-cheek mailing that Susan received from AM1500 [Question for candidate who knocks at your door: 1. Have you ever attended the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs? (If yes, thank them for their time and move them on to the next house.]

Four of our staff attended the Humphrey Institute, with majors in planning, public policy, and program management. In a recent newsletter, I learned that the current entering class is 204 students (my entering class was closer to 100), with the following statistics:

Men/Women: 46%/54%
Minority students: 12%
International students: 12%
Minnesota residents: 62%
Average age: 27

With fond memories of my fellow students, professors and classes....

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The most recent issue of the American Journal of Evaluation (v. 27, n3, Sept. 2006) presents an interesting ethical scenario: when is an evaluator no longer external? In the scenario, an evaluator has been working with an agency for a number of years, and a significant portion of their income comes from the single agency. A foundation, interested in funding a replication of a program that was found to have promising results by the evaluator, is concerned that the evaluator is not external.

Although the two respondents from the scenario take different approaches in their analysis, they have similar suggestions:

1) The evaluator should disclose how the situation might present a conflict of interest, and how they would address that conflict

2) The foundation should establish guidance about why external evaluation is important and why they will only fund projects with external evaluators; this will help both the agency and evaluator act accordingly

3) The agency and evaluator should establish each party's role prior to conducting any research or evaluation activities

For agencies and funders looking for an external evaluator, they should consider:

* What is the purpose of having an external evaluator?
* What areas are of particular concern for objectivity?
* What are they hoping to gain, or willing to lose, in the trade off between existing knowledge (when an evaluator has a relationship and history with an organization) and objective perspectives?

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A couple of months ago our staff created a recommendation list for books, movies, music and TV shows. Since we all lead busy lives, it is a nice resource if you are looking for something to do and haven't had time to read the entertainment section of the paper.

Some recent additions:

Movie: The Departed (Scorsese). Both Sarah Shannon and Leah Goldstein Moses enjoyed its plot and characters (not for the gore-adverse).

Book: Random Family (LeBlanc). Marian describes it as a moving portrait of a family living below the poverty line.

TV Show: Project Runway (BravoTV). The third season just ended; the fashion and competition are a stitch.

We'd love to hear your recommendations!

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In our work with Girl Scouts USA to evaluate the Uniquely ME! initiative (funded primarily by the Unilever/Dove Self-esteem fund) we will have the opportunity to learn about girls self-esteem and body image, and record a number of their stories on video.

A DOVE video highlights why this issue is so important; with unrealistic standards of beauty promoted through intense media saturation, girls express on-going confusion about what healthy body images are. A report from Girl Scouts shows that girls think that being healthy has more to do with appearing “normal” and feeling accepted than maintaining good diet and exercise habits.

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The Improve Group is happy to announce that we have joined the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce. Today our offices were visited by the friendly chamber Ambassadors here in Bloomington. They gave us helpful information on how to get involved with the chamber committees and shared information on upcoming opportunities to meet our fellow members. Our thanks to Arlene Bush, Director of the Bloomington Public Schools Board of Education, Ryan Evers, specializing in financial staffing for Accountemps, and Shelley Jaax, Branch Manager and Senior Loan Officer for Summit Mortgage Corporation for coming to learn about our organization. We had a fun discussion, with a few self-deprecating laughs this morning (Leah fell on the unexpected ice on her way in this morning and looked a little worse for wear).

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Early this fall, our HR vendor, Administaff, held a school supply drive for students in the metro area. Our staff filled a box with school supplies ranging from glue sticks to pen cases.

See all the items collected:

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Two weeks ago several of our staff had the honor of attending Sarah Myott's commitment ceremony. She and life partner Kathy had their ceremony in the beautiful Pavillion at Como Park and celebrated with a reception at Black Bear Crossings. It was a beautiful ceremony and we are very happy for Sarah and Kathy!

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This week, you may have had trouble getting in contact with us. Several staff were attending two conferences this week: the Common Ground for Common Good conference in St. Paul, a joint conference between the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and Minnesota Council of Foundations, and the Age & DIsability Odyssey Conference, a state and national conference for organizations serving people with disabilities and the elderly.

At the Odyssey Conference, we presented our HCBS waiver review work in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Attending were staff from counties around Minnesota and other human service agencies around the country interested in our process for evaluating implementation and outcomes for these complex programs. We enjoyed hearing about other efforts to make sure program participants are achieving both social and health outcomes while staying in the community vs. institutional settings.

At the Common Ground conference, we learned about volunteer program efforts and the need to have better data to both manage volunteers and plan for how best to tap their talent and energy.

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