PbS > Programs > Community Residential

Community Residential

PbS was adapted for community residential programs in 2008 and currently provides more than 60 outcome measures for residential facilities or programs that keep youths participating in the community. The outcome measures show how a program’s services and performance meet the PbS standards in safety, order, security, programming (education), health, mental health services, justice and reintegration. The outcome measures are available as easy-to-read bar graph reports available twice a year, showing change and improvement every six months as well as performance compared to similar programs.

The outcomes are derived from information collected from surveys:

  • One administrative form to collect general information about the program, population, procedures and staff;
  • One injury report to provide the program with the ability to analyze the frequency and kinds of injuries that are occurring;
  • One behavior management profile to show how staff respond to unusual incidents;
  • Youth record reviews of all youths who left the program to capture information about youths’ experiences and services received during their time in the program;
  • Surveys are all youths and staff on the designated day to gather feedback about program conditions, quality of life, staff-youth relationships and services; and
  • Surveys of families of all youths leaving the program to learn about the families’ experiences with the program, relationships with staff and ability to stay connected to their child.

All PbS participants are provided with a PbS coach, a juvenile justice expert who provides support throughout the year by telephone and email and who may visit to guide the implementation of PbS. The agency coordinator works with programs to use the data reports to develop Improvement Plans (IPs), which are entered into the PbS website and shared widely to engage agency leaders and staff in its implementation. Agency leaders, program staff and the PbS coach monitor the IP using on-line comments that create a living document for reform and records change strategy.