Learning from Louisiana

Chief Judge Ernestine Gray,
Orleans Parish Juvenile Court

The Youth Transition Funders Group is meeting in New Orleans on April 29 and 30. As always, we share the focus of the meetings in an effort towards transparency.

On April 29, the work groups will meet to learn about work in Louisiana, as well as share information about their investments and advancements in their fields.

The Multiple Pathways to Graduation Work Group, with its goal to improve educational and employment attainment, will look at how opportunity youth fit into the dramatic changes in the New Orleans education landscape. The work group will be joined by the Opportunity Youth Collaborative, a recipient of the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund. Panelists will include Jen Roberts, vice president for education, Baptist Community Ministries; Adam Hawf, deputy superintendent, Portfolio, Louisiana Department of Education; Michael Stone, chief external relations officer, New Schools for New Orleans; John Ayers, executive director, Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, Tulane University; and Eric Jensen (invited), executive director, Partnership for Youth Development.

The Multiple Pathways to Graduation Work Group will join the Juvenile Justice Work Group for a look at the incredibly powerful role that youth and family advocates have played in the transformation of Louisiana’s juvenile justice system. Over the past decade, Louisiana’s juvenile justice system has closed dangerous institutions, expanded community-based alternatives, and reduced the number of incarcerated youth from 2,000 to fewer than 600. Leading the conversation are Dana Kaplan, executive director of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana; Gina Womack, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children; and Wesley Ware, BreakOUT!. The panel will highlight current juvenile justice initiatives, including efforts to address the school-to-prison pipeline, and discuss strategies for effectively partnering with system-involved LGBTQ youth and families to advance reform.

During the day, funders will have the opportunity to visit sites to learn about the Youth Empowerment Project, which operates at the intersection of high school and juvenile justice reform efforts. Since its inception in 2004, the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) has earned local and statewide recognition for being at the cutting edge of progressive programs for at-risk youth. What started as the first-of-its-kind re-entry program for juvenile offenders in Louisiana is now a comprehensive agency working with at-risk, court-involved, and out-of-school youth. YEP programming includes a community reintegration program, a community-based mentoring program for youth who are not court involved, GED and basic literacy instruction for youth and young adults ages 16 to 24, and a youth employment program comprised of several youth-run businesses. During this site visit, funders will meet with YEP Co-founder and Executive Director Melissa Sawyer and visit two of the organization's New Orleans sites: the YEP Main Education Site, and the Trafigura Work & Learn Center.

The Foster Care Work Group will continue the conversation on well-being with a site visit to Covenant House to explore strategies that support older youth in foster care and beyond. They also will meet with leaders in foster care to understand the work in Louisiana.

On April 30, YTFG will dive into strengthening social and emotional wellness and preventing youth homelessness. YTFG is exploring how an inclusive framework of well-being that stretches from health to employment can allow us to work together more effectively across the fields of education, juvenile justice and child welfare to ensure our young people are Connected by 25.

The meeting will open with a discussion on investing in the well-being of youth, led by Bryan Samuels, executive director of Chapin Hall, and Tony Biglan, senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute. That will be followed by a discussion on applying a well-being framework with Paul Goren, senior vice president, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning; Renee Hallock, New York Office of Children and Family Services, and Ernestine Gray, Chief Judge, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court.

Nan Roman, the director of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and Anne Miskey, executive director of Funders Together to Prevent Homelessness, will discuss the role of philanthropy in preventing youth homelessness. We will then look more closely at the intersection of homelessness and systems serving vulnerable youth with a panel including Martha Kegel, executive director of UNITY of Greater New Orleans, and Barbara Duffield, policy director, National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

It’s shaping up to be a challenging and inspirational two days in New Orleans.