We’re building power with the people whose future is at stake.

Groups of people are organizing all across the country to end youth incarceration and orient people to their own power. We provide rigorous nuts-and-bolts organizing training that equips people with the skills to become strong organizers and effective base builders.

We are also consistently learning and evaluating: How well are our efforts working and what can we do better—as a united movement—to reach our shared goal?

Some examples of this work:

• Organizing and base building training and practice, political education, and strategic campaign coaching + development.
• The Grassroots Assembly brings movement leaders together to create and coordinate strategic campaigns and align on our long-term goals for abolition
• Communities of Practice connect people from across our network so they can learn from one another, sharpen their strategies and build stronger intergenerational organizing campaigns

The Youth Hub is where young people find their place at YFJCo. It’s a place to connect, learn, grow as organizers and shape the movement.  Through the Youth Hub, YFJCo offers opportunities for  continuous learning, political education, gatherings and more, all specifically designed for the new generation of abolitionists and organizers.

• The Youth Huddle: A quarterly call where  young leaders link up to connect, build and grow. The Huddle is a casual space to learn about leadership opportunities, gain access to unique training and build community with youth from more than 15 states across the US.
• The Block x Block Fellowship: A hybrid, 12-month, paid fellowship for eight young leaders between 17 and 25 who have been directly impacted by the legal system and are already affiliated with YFJCo.
• Youth Leadership Advisory Board (YLAB): A group of system-impacted young leaders from the YFJCo network. This is a two-year volunteer commitment. YLAB members strengthen and guide the opportunities offered and impact created through the Youth Hub @ YFJCo.
• Liberation Summer: An annual, curated experience. Each summer, we offer opportunities, from a training series to an in-person intensive, designed to deepen skills, strengthen relationships and develop young leaders as organizers.

We act as an intermediary funder, funnelling resources to basebuilding organizations on the ground, particularly those led by directly impacted youth. We also resource decarceration and reinvestment campaigns across the country.

We integrate art, culture and community power-building to enact durable social change by and for communities most impacted by youth incarceration. Using culture as a strategy, we partner with artists to amplify campaigns and build collective power.

• The No Kids in Prison Magazine is a groundbreaking platform by and for directly-impacted youth reshaping the national narrative around justice

• The biannual Youth Prison Watch broadside brings information about the state of youth prisons to readers in ten states

• The Youth Curatorial Apprenticeship engages two young people in the year-long, hands-on process of grassroots publishing. Apprentices conceptualize and plan the No Kids in Prison Magazine, manage and support an open community call for original writing and artwork, select submissions, edit commissioned work and collaborate on the magazine’s final layout, design and distribution.

• Freedom Constellations: A multi-city immersive art experience that included art installations, poetry readings, and more, all created in the interest of envisioning a future where all youth are free, safe and thriving