Part II.

Training and Technical Assistance for Teams

The primary recommendation to the Office of Justice Programs is the provision of team-based training to local jurisdictions around the country on the collaborative approach to managing sex offenders in the community. The Summit should be used as a model approach to this training.

Each of the ten working groups strongly recommended that the Office of Justice Programs provide training to local teams on the effective management of sex offenders in the community. The following sub-recommendations also emanated from a number of the working groups:

• In order to ensure the success of this approach, the training effort should be preceded by efforts to "get the teams ready" for this training and "create the environment for collaboration." For those jurisdictions that do not already have experience with local collaborative teams, emphasis should be placed on building these teams in advance of the training. Where local planning groups or policy teams already exist, this effort should build on those experiences and groups.
• The recipients of the Office of Justice Programs' training should be local, multi-disciplinary policymakers and practitioners. They should be considered local planning groups with responsibility for planning local responses to effectively managing sex offenders.
• Summit participants underscored the essential presence of judges, law enforcement and community members as a part of these planning groups. There was strong sentiment that victims groups should be included in the local communities' efforts. Other critical team members include prosecution and probation and parole.
• Several working groups recommended that this training be provided as broadly as possible, potentially reaching every state. One working group underscored the need to ensure that this training saturate each state, including rural areas. Videos and video conferences were recommended as methods to accomplish this saturation.
• Similarly, one working group recommended that the Office of Justice Programs sponsor a "train the trainers" event for a representative from each state -- an effort to build the capacity within each state to train state and local officials on this topic.

Half of the working groups emphasized the importance of making available follow-up technical assistance to local planning groups following the team-based training events described above. The following sub-recommendations related to follow-up technical assistance were made:

• One group recommended that the follow-up technical assistance for local planning groups include site visits to jurisdictions that have developed model approaches to some aspect of this work.
• Similarly, another working group recommended the establishment of "mentoring sites." These jurisdictions would serve as training sites to jurisdictions from around the country and would be prepared to train or advise visiting jurisdictions on key elements of the successful management of sex offenders.
• It was also recommended that funds be made available to support jurisdictions that had participated in team-based trainings. These funds would be used to support activities such as consultation from expert technical assistance providers, and for retreats and other key events for local planning groups.