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Jonathan Cloud

Jonathan Cloud

Jonathan I. Cloud has thirty years of experience in the human services field that encompasses case management, administration, and program development. His career has included special initiatives in youth outreach, family support, community organizing, child protective services, foster care reform, disproportionate minority contact, juvenile justice systems reform, and youth-focused disaster recovery. His areas of demonstrated expertise include strategy development, organizational and systems diagnosis and development, program planning and development, partnership-building, and systems change through targeted project planning and execution.

Jonathan began full-time independent consulting in 1992. His initial consulting included serving as the Urban Initiatives Consultant for the U.S. Department of Education's Southeast Regional Center for Drug-Free Schools and Communities. He also served as a Certified Trainer and Strategic Consultant for Developmental Research and Programs, Inc., (which was a key organization in bringing about the national shift to science-based prevention utilizing risk and protective factors). Since this initial work, Jonathan has provided technical assistance to communities engaged in the Weed & Seed national crime reduction initiative, assisted with a juvenile court improvement project, conducted an in-depth analysis in a county of factors associated with DMC and developed a training for three counties focused on alternatives to suspensions, expulsions, and arrests for low-risk youth of color. He has provided training and technical assistance to scores of communities on behalf of the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). For this federal agency, he assisted with the development and delivery of their Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, Chronic Juvenile Offenders Initiative, and their Targeted Community Action Planning Initiative. Both initiatives were rigorous, science-based planning processes that linked a community's prevention, intervention, and corrections systems. Other consulting highlights include:

  • Project Safe Neighborhoods: Department of Justice national gun violence reduction initiative.
  • Outagamie County (Wisconsin) Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Partnership: technical assistance in developing and implementing a three-year strategic plan.
  • National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: numerous trainings on protecting victims of child sex trafficking and on school safety.
  • Outagamie County, Wisconsin Division of Youth and Family Services: assistance in improving its efforts to reduce disproportionate minority contact, integration of child welfare and juvenile justice (e.g. "dual-status youth"), and community-wide strategy to address child sex trafficking.
  • Georgia Governor's Office for Children and Families/Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council: consultation, technical support, and training to address domestic minor sex trafficking and adult sex and labor trafficking.
  • U.S. Department of Labor/YouthBuild USA: technical assistance provider to YouthBuild Programs focused on training and support of development for youth out of the education mainstream.

Jonathan has provided trainings on numerous topics and delivered keynote addresses for conferences across the country. He is the author of Parenting the Guardian Class: Validating Spirited Youth, Ending Adolescence, and Renewing America's Greatness, which argues for empowering youth rather than controlling youth. His higher education includes holding B.A. degrees in Religion and Psychology and extensive graduate studies in Public Administration and Social Work.