The Nebraska Coalition for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) was established in 1982, as required by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act and acts as an advisory group to the Nebraska Crime Commission. In 2013, NCJJ submitted a technical assistance request for strategic planning to the State Relations and Assistance Division of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) seeking assistance in the development of an action oriented, strategic plan to guide its future activities. The OJJDP technical assistance meeting occurred on May 30th and 31st, 2013.

One of the recommendations resulting from this technical assistance meeting was that NCJJ conduct a strength-based assessment of its members around its five key focus areas. The two primary areas of data collection were to be 1) the area of system represented by each member, and 2) the area of system of most interest to each member. The proposed goals of the assessment were twofold. First, the assessment would allow NCJJ to determine their current representation throughout the juvenile justice system and determine potential areas that would benefit from the recruitment of new members. Second, the assessment would provide an opportunity to assist individual members in setting realistic goals for themselves and the group as a whole. Dr. Ryan Spohn, Director of the Nebraska Center for Justice Research (NCJR) at the University of Nebraska – Omaha was contracted to conduct the strength-based assessment and summarize his findings in a report for NCJJ.