A brightly colored mural hanging in the lobby of the new Jonathan Delagrave Youth Development & Care Center features a woman with a serene expression and open hands, water, and a bird flying toward sunlight. It evokes peace, tranquility, and hope.
It sends a message that the center, based in the Village of Caledonia in Racine County, and its staff aim to put the needs of the youth in its care first and provide evidence-based programs aimed at reducing recidivism, supporting mental and physical health, and fostering strong community ties.
“We have natural light throughout the whole facility. We have courtyards, we have windows in their rooms that get some sunlight. The new facility has courtyards in our day rooms, an outdoor recreational area, and an indoor gym,” said Superintendent Tony Chavez, describing the new facility that was celebrated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 5.
There’s also a garden area, music room, and a cooking space.
Some of the much-needed improvements were informed by University of Wisconsin–Parkside students enrolled in Dr. Aubri McDonald’s criminal justice course on race, crime, and law over the past four years. Since 2021, McDonald and Chavez have worked together in a partnership that began with UniverCity Alliance and was fostered in the following years by UW-Parkside’s Community and Business Engagement Department.
McDonald and Chavez share a commitment to caring for youth in the community and improving the juvenile justice system, which they said contributed to the duration of the ongoing, successful partnership. They received the 2025 Outstanding Partnership Award from UW–Parkside for their work and will be recognized on April 11.
“Connecting, communication, and Tony’s willingness to make time for the partnership and be flexible are the ingredients that keep the partnership going,” McDonald said.
“(McDonald) and UW-Parkside were always just willing to help the youth, demonstrated passion for the kids and youth corrections, and were sensitive to understanding that we’re still running a 24/7 facility,” Chavez added.
Partnership origins
Chavez and McDonald were first connected in 2021 during a partnership between Racine County and UniverCity Alliance – a program based at the University of Wisconsin–Madison that connects Wisconsin local governments with university resources to address community-identified priorities.
During the partnership with UniverCity from 2020-23, Racine County was looking to understand best practices in juvenile justice surrounding the design, construction, hiring practices of detention workers and staff, as well as classroom and trauma-informed care practices to ensure its most vulnerable youth are placed in a facility with the design and foundation to foster long-term success upon returning to the community.
In addition to projects with McDonald and her students, Racine County also partnered with former UW-Parkside Clinical and Mental Health Counseling professor, Dr. Ann Friesema. The UniverCity partnership ultimately yielded nine projects completed by UW–Parkside and UW–Madison students, faculty, and instructors that included a review of the youth care facility operations manual, research about family engagement and youth re-entry, and recommendations for staff training.
At UW–Madison, Patti Coffey, Department of Psychology faculty associate; Julie Poehlmann, professor of Human Development and Family Studies and Dorothy A. O’Brien Chair in Human Ecology; and Lori DiPrete Brown, distinguished teaching faculty in Civil Society and Community Studies and director of Global Health and Human Ecology, facilitated these projects. DiPrete Brown is also a co-chair of the UniverCity Alliance Advisory Board.
Gavin Luter, who was managing director of UniverCity Alliance during the collaboration with Racine County and UW-Parkside, said this partnership was exciting to see unfold and offered a unique chance for students at two Universities of Wisconsin institutions to inform best practices for youth at the new facility.
“This partnership reflects what’s possible when the Universities of Wisconsin, as a collective of institutions, work together and listen to the needs of communities,” Luter said. “This project is a shared success of UW–Parkside and UW–Madison rolling up their sleeves to ask how they can best help. The fact that the connections with UW–Parkside are still active shows us that UniverCity Alliance can be a catalyst for long-term changes.”
Amy Garrigan, community engagement manager within UW–Parkside’s Community and Business Engagement Office said the structure that her office and programs like UniverCity provide are key to the success of community-university partnerships.
Garrigan credited McDonald for continuing to build her class around projects with Chavez at the youth care facility. She noted that criminal justice is one of UW–Parkside’s signature programs, and many of the students will go on to work in the field within the community.
“It’s not very often that you’re going to have the opportunity to contribute to a brand new center,” Garrigan said. “The fact that this was happening right in their backyard and that you can make an impact on the way youth will experience criminal justice was something the students really took to heart.”
Listening to youth and staff
In addition to informing the design of the new facility, Chavez noted other impacts on the youth housed at the care center.
“The impact for them was the ability to have a little bit of a voice in a lot of things that we did. It was really taking their interests into account,” Chavez said.
For example, the facility swapped out its blankets because the youth said the old ones were too harsh on their hair.
As the partnership evolved, McDonald and Chavez focused on surveying staff at the care center. This has resulted in a pay increase for staff, additional training, and a system to give anonymous feedback.
“The surveys also gave them the ability to talk about other things that they were struggling with when it came to other shifts not doing certain things, so then it got us to look at the operations on each shift,” Chavez said.
McDonald emphasized the importance of these staff surveys because she has found a lack of research on the workforce behind juvenile justice agencies. Most of the literature focuses on adult corrections and policies.
“But it’s not focused on the actual frontline people who are delivering these policies. A detention center can have all the best intentions, but if you don’t have your workforce on board with that then it’s useless,” McDonald said. “The best way to help the youth is to help the people who are interfacing with the youth full time.”
Student experience
For the students enrolled in McDonald’s class, the partnership provides professional development opportunities, fulfilling academic experiences, and the rare opportunity to gain access and insight into the operations of the care center.
They also learn they can make a difference for high-risk youth as well as their own community, McDonald said.
“It gives them a sense of pride and then that encourages them to seek out other civic engagement opportunities,” McDonald said.
Sephontae Callier, a UW–Parkside senior graduating in May with a degree in criminal justice, said the experience gave him a new perspective on the juvenile justice system and influenced him to consider pursuing a career as a criminal justice lawyer.
“It definitely gave me a more hands-on experience,” Callier said. “It’s a system that could do better, but it’s good to know that they’re actually willing to hear other perspectives to improve it.”
Similarly, UW–Parkside senior James Diaz said McDonald’s course enhanced his academic career.
“We’re actually putting what we learn into practice,” said Diaz, who graduates in May and is also pursuing law school.
Sydney Chavez Alejandre, an aspiring pediatrician, enrolled in McDonald’s class to receive credit for a community-engagement certificate. As an applied health sciences major, she had not taken criminal justice courses during her college career but was inspired by McDonald’s class and the project with the care facility.
“It changed my overall perspective so much. Having that connection with the community partner, it makes me have a different outlook on life,” Chavez Alejandre said. “If it was up to me, I’d have every single class I take have a community partner just for the way that it enhances your learning so much.”
Though she’s been considering a future career in a hospital or intensive care units for babies or kids, she said the experience opened her mind to the idea of working in health care for those who are incarcerated. Chavez Alejandre plans to graduate in May and pursue medical school.
–Abigail Becker