Regional Care Teams
What are Maine Regional Care Teams?
The Regional Care Teams (RCTs) is a partnership between the Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC), the Place Matters team at the University of Southern Maine (USM), and the Center for Youth Policy and Law (CYPL) at Maine Law. Place Matters provides facilitation, data, and research to support individual system-involved youth and their families and to help inform broader system change.
The Regional Care Teams are a network made up of individuals from youth-serving agencies, systems, organizations, and communities in each Department of Corrections (DOC) region who meet monthly to share resources, fill in gaps, and respond to local needs of youth referred to the initiative, and also develop strategies to inform policy and practice at the systems level. Additionally, the state Juvenile Justice Advisory Group (JJAG) has provided federal juvenile justice and delinquency prevention dollars to assist these teams in supporting youth in their community. Regional Care Teams is co-designed with our community partners in wraparound case management and emergency response fund administrations: Wings for Children and Families (Region 3 and 2) and The Opportunity Alliance (Region 1 and 2).
The goal of these Regional Care Teams is to facilitate shared accountability to the health, safety, and wellbeing of systems impacted and their families so they may thrive in their chosen communities. We do this by strengthening cross-system, provider, and community involvement to inform local resource development and increase supports, resources and opportunities for youth through a local community-based continuum of care.
For more information on the Regional Care Teams, check out our RCT one-pager.
Regions & Contacts
Each region supports a network of people and organizations ready to work together to support individual youth and their families AND to help inform system change. If you are interested in joining the network as a partner for your region you can email the DOC Regional Correctional Administrator or facilitator for that region.
Region I
Counties
Cumberland and York
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Regional Correctional Administrator
John Coyne
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Facilitator
Jill Ward
Region II
Counties
Androscoggin, Franklin,
Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Oxford, and
Sagadahoc
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Regional Correctional Administrator
Sue Nee
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Facilitator
Ahmen Cabral
Region III
Counties
Aroostook, Hancock,
Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Waldo,
and Washington
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Regional Correctional Administrator
Steve Labonte
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Facilitator
Emma Schwartz
RCT Monthly Meetings
The Regional Care Teams meet monthly in each region. Meeting participants share information, resources, and strategies to assist in supporting a specific youth and will also help to identify and inform regional and statewide systemic changes that will improve youth, program, and population outcomes.
Monthly meetings also serve as a time to provide case consultation for individual youth upon referral to the Regional Care Teams for support. The meetings use a case sharing approach to triage and help develop responses to unmet needs.
Interested to learn more about monthly meetings? Check out our Meeting Guide.
Refer a Youth to Regional Care Teams
Since the inception of the Regional Care Teams, we have had over 200 referrals and provided supports to over 150 youth. Youth may be referred by a juvenile corrections staff member, other agency staff member, social worker or case manager, or anyone who is working with a transition aged youth (age 14-24) who is at risk of or currently involved with the justice system.
Do you know or work with a young person who is involved or at risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system and could benefit from extra support? There are TWO ways to support youth through your RCT: Request a Care Team Review OR Request Funding. Click on the links below to access the forms.
Once a form is completed, the responses are sent to the Regional Correctional Administrator for the specific region who will review the form and specific request.
For more information about our funds request approval process, please refer to this guide.
Case Review Request Form
Funds Request Form
Data & Resources
The Place Matters team and the Regional Care Teams network is dedicated to ongoing performance monitoring to continuously improve the initiative and make data-informed decisions. We do this through ongoing data tracking of our referrals and an annual evaluation report.
Referrals data dashboard
Year 2 evaluation report
Year 1 Evaluation Report