University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This 18-month grant supports University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) to develop, pilot, and evaluate a practical training program for juvenile justice (JJ) professionals to increase their understanding of the complex neurodevelopmental processes that drive brain, cognitive, and emotional development and undergird mental and behavioral health and wellbeing during adolescence. The training program focuses on translating the interrelated impacts of substance use and exposure to adversity on adolescent brain development, and the practical considerations of this body of research that can guide JJ professionals in case planning for JJ-involved youth. 

Most professionals working with JJ-involved youth have little understanding of how neuroscience and brain development can shape effective strategies for intervention. This knowledge deficit can lead to misconceptions about adolescent behavior, compromising the effectiveness of their approaches to JJ-involved youth. UNC aims to address this knowledge deficit through a blended training program consisting of a self-paced, digital learning module and three, live in-person workshops. The two-hour learning module provides JJ professionals with a greater understanding of the factors that affect youth brain development and contribute to the behavioral and emotional dysregulations leading to JJ encounters. The information presented is applicable and relatable to the day-to-day work of JJ professionals and includes highly interactive elements consisting of realistic narrative scenarios, relevant actionable recommendations, and demonstrations of the realistic outcomes of the recommendations as applied to each scenario. Each half-day workshop provides a forum for 30 JJ professionals to discuss their efforts to apply neuroscience concepts from the practical training module to actual cases, providing the opportunity for coaching and social learning.  

This project aims to provide evidence for the need and utility of educational opportunities that connect neuroscience to the strategies used by other child-serving systems, especially the child welfare and education systems. UNC believes it is incumbent upon neuroscientists to translate neuroscience evidence where there is field consensus and when doing so may have practical or policy significance, aligning closely with the Foundation’s goal to strengthen neuroscience’s positive role in the world. 

This grant supports the Dana Foundation objective to facilitate greater understanding and informed decision-making among professionals by supporting new education approaches on neuroscience topics related to their practice.