Community Involvement
10th Judiciary Circuit -- Family Division, Community Core Collaboration, Judges’ Advocacy Commission
Saginaw County Juvenile Justice Core Collaborative is an advisory committee to the Michigan 10th Judicial District-Family Court, which diverts appropriate cases of truancy from family court to a private process of mediation. SVSU students are teamed with an experienced mentor to co-mediate cases, providing practical, hands-on experience with conflict resolution while still completing their degree program.
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| SVSU professor Cliff Dorne and Judge Faye M. Harrison of Michigan's 10th Circuit Probate Court discuss the commission. |
The process begins when state truancy officers identify juveniles who are appropriate for private mediation. The truancy officers bring the case to the intake office, where it is reviewed. Mediation then happens at the school, involving the juvenile’s parent(s) or guardian(s), the truancy officer, and the school’s administration.
The goal of mediation is to establish a mutually agreed contract of obligation for the juvenile and her/his guardian(s) which is also accepted by the school administration. Ground rules for mediation are based upon the manual established by the Administrative Office of the Michigan Supreme Court. Overall, mediation participants have been extremely satisfied with the quality of justice they received through the process.
The scope of SVSU’s involvement in the program consists of providing intake services and training for mediators, and program assessment. SVSU established the truancy mediation case intake office
Assessment of the program consists of tracking recidivism rates of program participants and satisfaction with the quality of justice received by all participants. The evaluation program has been approved by SVSU’s Institutional Review Board.
The program is administered by Dr. Clifford Dorne, Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Behavioral Sciences; Francis Dane, Finkbiner Endowed Chair in Ethics and Public Policy, who is in charge of program assessment and data collection; Angela Tortorice, who administers questionnaires as evaluation site supervisor; and Ann Coburn Collins, who provides data entry.