We’re building power with the people whose future is at stake.
Our impact at a glance
When we say ‘no kids,’ we mean all kids. Our work is guided by abolition for all.
The Youth First Justice Collaborative (YFJC) is a vital hub strengthening the movement to end youth incarceration. We do this by offering technical assistance, funding and support for the next generation of organizers and abolitionists.
Central to YFJC’s approach are our core values:
Youth Power: We believe in the collaborative cultivation of youth power. We partner with young leaders to support their capacity to effect change in their communities.
Strategic Excellence: Strategic rigor and excellence are fundamental to our approach. We commit to best practices and expert collaboration in every campaign we promote and support.
Racial Justice: Racial justice is a cornerstone of our work. This principle directs our efforts, ensuring that racial equity is integrated into all aspects of our campaigns.
Focused Community Reinvestment: We’re committed to community reinvestment because it is crucial to creating sustainable alternatives to youth incarceration.
You’ll find more information on this page about six fundamental ways our team strengthens state campaigns working to end youth incarceration. But at its core, our work is simple: We support policies that get young people out of jail and put money into programs and policies that actually help them.
Most importantly, we consider it our duty to support and train the youth organizers who will carry this work forward.
How we work
Section 1.
Technical Assistance
By drawing on the expertise of those working in the intersecting fields of youth justice, prison abolition, organizing, arts and culture, and more, we offer our state partners an array of services to help end youth incarceration.
The technical assistance we provide includes coalition-building, strategic communications and training for youth and adult organizers. Some examples include annual organizing and base-building trainings with George Jackson Organizing School and state-level budget and policy analysis to strategically assist states in using data to strengthen their advocacy campaigns through Civilytics.
Section 2.
Funding
We provide financial support to state partners via millions of dollars in subgrants. Additionally, we offer increased technical support to partners that helps them build their own fundraising capacity.
Section 3.
Youth Leadership Building
The movement to end youth incarceration is growing and organizers are rising across the nation. Still, not enough directly impacted young leaders—youth who have had direct interactions with the legal system—have the tools to become skilled and confident organizers. By hosting spaces and experiences that help the rising generation of abolitionist organizers develop power-building skills, we are filling that gap.
It’s been a really transformative experience knowing that there’s people in other parts of the country fighting the same fight that we are.
Through positions on the Advisory Board, youth and emerging leaders between 18 and 30 work alongside YFJC’s Director of Youth Organizing and Leadership to strengthen the functions and impact of the opportunities we offer to young people. These Board members also create ad hoc opportunities and/or co-facilitate Youth Leadership training.
The Youth Organizing Fellowship allows for a tight-knit group of directly impacted youth organizers to take their leadership to the next level through continuous learning and collaborative thinking. This Fellowship is an experiential learning journey for directly impacted leaders that pushes their collaborative thinking and practices to the next level.
Section 4.
Convenings
We provide regular opportunities for our state partners to come together to strategize, ideate, exchange best practices and build community across our network. At the annual Grassroots Assembly, our largest convening, partners from more than a dozen states build together, learn from each other and receive training in key skill areas.
Section 5.
Arts & Culture
YFJC integrates art, culture and community power-building to enact durable social change by and for communities most impacted by youth incarceration. We partner with artists and artist collaboratives to support cultural organizing to build collective power.
The 2021 national immersive art exhibition Freedom Constellations and #NoKidsInPrison Exhibit are prime examples of how we engage in arts and culture to build collective power. In Philadelphia, PA, Richmond, VA, St. Paul, MN and Chicago, IL, murals, billboards, exhibitions and poetry invited residents and visitors to envision a world without youth prisons.
This exhibit helped me express myself and learn about the power of art and social change. The best part is that youth impacted by the system are making art to transform the system.
Youth Leader at Care, Not Control & Freedom Constellations participant
Section 6.
Learning & Evaluation
Research for social justice expands and improves the conditions for justice.
Distinguished Professor, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi
Learning & Evaluation (L&E) helps us understand if and how our work is getting us closer to achieving our vision of no kids in prison by posing essential questions: How well are we supporting state campaigns? How are young leaders, particularly those directly impacted by the carceral system, growing their leadership? How are we moving closer to a more just, humane society?
To answer these questions, we regularly reflect on and assess our activities, identifying specific technical supports that will strengthen our state partners’ campaigns as they organize directly impacted youth and move their work forward.
