What does it take to truly understand the needs of a vulnerable young person — and then translate that understanding into a plan that actually works? That question sits at the heart of everything Orbis has built with CASSY (Comprehensive Assessment for Services and Support for Youth), a next-generation youth assessment tool designed for professionals conducting at-risk youth assessments across child welfare, behavioral health, schools, juvenile justice, and community-based settings.
Dr. David Robinson, CEO & Director of Assessment at Orbis and a leading mind behind CASSY, answers insightful questions that benefit practitioners, program directors, and agency leaders who are evaluating how to better serve at-risk youth. His answers reveal not just how the tool works, but why it was built the way it was — and what it means for the young people at the center of it all.
What Is CASSY?
CASSY (Comprehensive Assessment for Services and Support for Youth) is a strength-based, trauma-informed youth assessment tool designed to help agencies identify risks, needs, and strengths in vulnerable youth ages 11–23. It supports collaborative case planning across juvenile justice, child welfare, schools, and community-based programs.
From YASI to GOALS to CASSY: How One State's Challenges Shaped a New Standard
Q1: The Illinois Redeploy Program requested changes to YASI that ultimately resulted in a new version called GOALS, which CASSY is based on. Can you share more about how specific challenges from that initiative shaped the actual design of GOALS and CASSY?
"Illinois Redeploy moved to a service model based on Positive Youth Justice — or positive youth development — that identified a number of key life areas to build strength in its youth population. These included community engagement, relationships, health/wellness, education, employment, life skills, and safety. The organization also believed that the existing YASI terminology could be updated to reflect more current youth service language. There was a preference to adjust the content and language of the tool to be more generic. For example, juvenile justice terminology across many of the need domains was revised to apply to broader needs and broader service contexts. There was also a focus on strengths. While YASI incorporated strengths from the outset, we attempted to bring additional focus to those factors."
What emerged was a framework purpose-built to meet youth where they are — not just within the justice system, but across the full range of circumstances that shape a young person's life. That foundation directly informs CASSY's architecture today.
Fifteen Domains, One Whole Person: The Case for Broader Assessment Coverage
Q2: What was the reasoning for adding the additional domains (compared to YASI), and how do they change the assessment experience?
"There was a desire to expand the domain coverage of the assessment in a way that went beyond purely criminogenic needs or delinquency drivers, but also include domains that would help build additional skills for community success. While many of the need items in CASSY address traditional delinquency drivers, now there is room to assess issues like trauma, physical health, basic needs, life skills, and personal safety. Redeploy addressed these additional needs because the vulnerable youth population being served often struggled to access services that would address some of these needs that were not strictly drivers of delinquency. The actual method of conducting assessments did not change in a radical way. Motivational Interviewing maintains a foundational piece to conducting interviews and building success plans with youth."
CASSY's 15 domains and 106 items — covering everything from Basic Needs and Physical Health to Motivation and Confidence — provide a holistic, trauma-informed assessment that enables case managers and counselors to connect youth to wraparound services, not just address presenting problems. This expanded coverage is precisely what makes CASSY a versatile youth screening tool suitable far beyond the juvenile justice context.
Staff Are Taking Notice: What Practitioners Are Saying About CASSY
Q3: What feedback have you received about how youth respond to the CASSY new assessment process compared to other assessments they have experienced?
"We have received very positive responses from staff who were previously using YASI and now administer the new tool. There is a consensus that the tool is more comprehensive, more strength based, and more applicable to highly vulnerable youth populations."
The shift from a tool focused primarily on risk classification to one that foregrounds strengths alongside needs creates a different kind of conversation between practitioners and the youth they serve. Staff who work daily with justice-involved youth and other at-risk populations are reporting that CASSY gives them a richer, more actionable picture — one that supports genuine collaborative planning rather than simple categorization.
Implementation Done Right: Avoiding the Most Common Pitfalls
Q4: What implementation mistakes do agencies tend to make early on, and what advice would you give to avoid them?
"It's always about training and implementation policy. Some organizations do not invest sufficiently in training, especially where it concerns quality assurance. We feel that coaching is critical to helping users apply the assessment tool in developing success plans with youth. Not all organizations feel they can invest in this component, or alternatively, they might put this investment off to a later time. With implementation policy, agencies falter when they don't have a plan for how the tool will be used in day-to-day business — consistently across all staff users."
This is key guidance for any agency considering a new youth risk, needs, and strengths instrument. Successful implementation is not simply a matter of licensing software — it requires sustained investment in staff training, supervision, and clear protocols. Orbis supports agencies through this process with built-in eTraining on the CaseWorks platform, eLearning through their parent company, and ongoing coaching promote fidelity across teams.
Early Data, Real Promise: What the Numbers Are Beginning to Show
Q5: Since CASSY has been in use, have any unexpected patterns or insights emerged from the data that surprised you?
"We are at an early stage and have not compiled enough data to address those kinds of questions yet. However, our Illinois sample is growing and we will soon be able to examine the new tool from the perspective of validity. We're excited about this next step."
The evidence base for strength-based assessment more broadly is already compelling. Published research examining the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument (YASI) — the foundation upon which CASSY was developed — found that dynamic strengths consistently increased predictive accuracy beyond dynamic criminogenic needs alone, and that higher strength levels were associated with meaningfully better outcomes across multiple cohorts spanning more than 50,000 individuals (Brown et al., Criminal Justice and Behavior). As CASSY's Illinois dataset grows, Orbis expects to validate these patterns within the new framework as well.
Success Plans Built on Aspiration, Not Just Deficit
Q6: What kinds of case plans or referrals tend to result from CASSY insights that are different from other models?
"The main advantage we are seeing is a greater emphasis on building strengths across a variety of areas. Sometimes youth come for service with a number of personal aspirations which have previously not been supported. CASSY can help identify those and provide support to fuel the youth's success in the community."
This is one of the most distinctive features of CASSY's Collaborative Case Work model: the distinction between behavioral success and personal success. Rather than organizing plans solely around compliance or risk reduction, CASSY prompts practitioners to explore what a young person actually wants for their life — and then build goals that are anchored to those aspirations. The tool's strength-based goal framework encourages practitioners to write goals in positive, youth-centered language, making plans more motivating and more meaningful to the individuals they serve.
A Common Language Across Systems: How CASSY Supports Continuity
Q7: How does CASSY support consistency in assessment when youth are involved across multiple systems or agencies?
"Having a broader and more comprehensive focus on assessment domains more adequately covers the areas of service that multiple agencies would provide."
When a young person is simultaneously engaged with child welfare, a school-based counselor, and a community re-entry program, fragmented assessments often lead to fragmented services. CASSY's broad domain coverage — spanning education, family, physical health, mental health, employment, life skills, safety, and more — creates a shared framework that multiple service providers can reference. This promotes cross-agency continuity and helps align services around a unified picture of the youth's needs and strengths, rather than each system generating siloed snapshots.
Gold Mine of Data: What CASSY Reveals at the System Level
Q8: Beyond individual case planning, are there system-level or org-level insights agencies can gain when they look at CASSY data?
"With any assessment tool that assesses service-relevant factors, there is a gold mine of data that helps identify system strengths as well as service gaps."
The CaseWorks 2.0 platform — which delivers CASSY to practitioners — provides dynamic scoring dashboards and outcome-tracking tools that allow program directors and agency administrators to view population-level data alongside individual assessments. This means organizations can identify which domains show the highest levels of unmet need across their caseloads, surface patterns that warrant targeted investment, and track whether service interventions are producing measurable gains over time. For state and local agencies, this kind of aggregate intelligence is invaluable for planning, reporting, and resource allocation.
Beyond Justice: Why CASSY Is Ready for Every Setting That Serves Vulnerable Youth
Q9: Given that CASSY is positioned for populations beyond justice involvement, what unique benefits or challenges does it provide to non-justice settings?
"CASSY is ready to enter a variety of settings that are not just juvenile justice-related. The tool focuses on the kinds of needs that vulnerable youth present, whether they are having trouble at school, failing on probation, experiencing conflict with their families, encountering homelessness, dealing with drug problems, or reintegrating after serving time in juvenile custody. The tool is applicable to a variety of youth who are at risk of experiencing negative outcomes. Bringing strength-based assessment tools to youth service providers is the big plus in the approach we are offering with CASSY."
Designed for use with individuals aged 11 to 23, CASSY's trauma-informed, generic language and holistic domain structure make it equally applicable in school counseling offices, child welfare agencies, homeless and transitional youth services, substance use programs, and community re-entry settings. The tool does not assume justice involvement — it assumes only that the young person being served faces meaningful vulnerability and deserves a rigorous, compassionate, and strength-affirming assessment.
The Bottom Line: A Youth Screening Tool Built for the Whole Person
CASSY represents a meaningful evolution in how youth-serving organizations can think about assessment. By expanding beyond criminogenic risk factors to encompass the full range of needs and strengths that shape a young person's trajectory, CASSY equips practitioners with the insight to build success plans that are both clinically grounded and personally resonant.
For agencies evaluating their current tools and practices, CASSY offers a path to more comprehensive, more equitable, and more youth-centered service delivery — supported by the proven infrastructure of Orbis’ CaseWorks 2.0 platform and backed by decades of research on what actually works for justice-involved youth and vulnerable populations more broadly.
Whether your organization works in juvenile justice, child welfare, school-based services, or community re-entry, the questions Dave answered above reveal a tool that was built thoughtfully, refined through real-world implementation, and designed to grow with the evidence.
To learn more about CASSY and how it might serve your agency, contact us today!
Frequently Asked Questions About CASSY
What age group is CASSY designed for?
CASSY is designed for youth and young adults ages 11 to 23 across justice and non-justice settings.
Is CASSY only for juvenile justice programs?
No. While rooted in research from justice-involved populations, CASSY is built for schools, child welfare agencies, behavioral health providers, homeless youth programs, and community re-entry organizations.
What makes CASSY different from traditional risk assessments?
Unlike tools focused primarily on risk classification, CASSY emphasizes strengths, trauma-informed care, and collaborative case planning to improve long-term youth outcomes.
Orbis Partners provides solutions for criminal justice and human services systems, specializing in designing and implementing services for at-risk client groups. Orbis’ risk, needs, and strengths assessment tools are designed to guide the casework process by incorporating an individual’s unique set of needs. For more information about our assessments, visit our Assessments page by clicking here.