First, DC Alliance of Youth Advocates (DCAYA), a coalition of 100 youth advocacy organizations, is drawing attention to older youth, their lives and what can be done to help them get connected to school and work. Second, Campaign for Youth Justice, in partnership with DC Lawyers for Youth, has launched the Judge Our Youth campaign to address the practice of placing youth in adult jail. Third, Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) in partnership with the Social Innovation Fund (SIF) have developed youthCONNECT to strengthen many of the youth-serving non-profits and schools in DC.
DC Alliance of Youth Advocates is a 10-year old organization that is partnering with leading organizations to raise attention on youth. DCAYA has done their homework, beginning with surveys to get the facts. They estimate that 14,000 young people in the district (ages 16-24) are neither in school or work. Sixty percent were trying to re-engage in school or had in the past. And 7,354 DC youth under 18 are experiencing homelessness annually, but only 300 beds are available for youth. The alliance’s report, Connecting Youth to Opportunity: Better Understanding the Needs of Disconnected Young People in Washington, DC, describes the size and dynamics of the challenge in DC and an overarching strategy for what needs to be done. Finally, they’ve put together Connecting Youth to Opportunity: A Resource Map for the District’s Disconnected Youth Dollars, developed in partnership with the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region. It makes it easy to get on top of where funds are coming from.
You can see that DC is responding. According to DCAYA, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education has been exploring the possibility of a “multiple pathways” strategy, beginning with determining the capacity of the non-traditional education and training system, and the educational needs of the young people currently in it. In March, the DC Council voted to invest $1.3 million in the End Youth Homelessness Amendment Act, a 15% increase to homeless youth resources from the FY14 budget. It’s clear that DCAYA and its members are bringing political savvy to their work with a clear agenda and constant reminders to Tweet at Your Councilmembers.
DC Lawyers for Youth and Campaign for Youth Justice have launched the Judge Our Youth (JOY) Campaign to address DC’s practice of charging and incarcerating youth as adults. The report, Capital City Correction: Reforming DC's Use of Adult Incarceration Against Youth, states that:
[F]rom 2007 to 2012, 541 youth were charged as adults and incarcerated in adult jail in the District of Columbia. While incarcerated in the adult jail, these DC youth were housed in a developmentally inappropriate and inadequate facility where they receive limited educational, behavioral health, and vocational services. Most were not permitted to have in-person visits with family members. The majority of the time that youth spent at the adult jail was prior to trial, when youth are presumed innocent of the offense.We know that only bad things happen to kids in adult jails and that they are “greater risk for sexual victimization, physical assault, and suicide.”
According to the Judge Our Youth campaign, in DC, “the U.S. Attorney’s Office has the power to charge youth in adult criminal court under ‘direct file.’” If not for direct file, these youth would be handled by the juvenile justice system, which could meet their developmental and rehabilitative needs. The campaign is advocating for judges to “have a role in evaluating not only the facts of the alleged case, but also the facts of the youth to decide whether a young person would be better served through rehabilitative services in the juvenile justice system. Having an impartial judge play a role in this decision restores balance to the youth justice system here in DC.”
This campaign has just started, but knowing the strength of these two organizations, I’d say a win is around the corner.
Venture Philanthropy Partnership’s youthCONNECT initiative is only two years old but has made a difference in strengthening key organizations serving youth, such as See Forever Foundation, Year Up and Latin American Youth Center. I’m particularly partial to their outcomes framework, as it is explicitly recognizes that work experience itself is an important benchmark in young people’s lives – and far too many of our young men of color are denied that experience through the lingering patterns of institutional racism that haunt hiring practices. (See articles on discrimination against black college graduates, discrimination based on African-American sounding names, and discriminatory practices at Bank of America).
Much of the philanthropic and non-profit world is enraptured by the concept of collective impact. Certainly, running data-driven efforts to move the needle is important. Equally important is driving systemic improvements through campaigns and ensuring youth-serving organizations are as strong as they possibly can be in effectively deploying scarce resources.
Stay tuned for more on DC!
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