Casey Names 12 to its Juvenile Justice Youth Advisory Council

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has select­ed 12 young adults from across the coun­try to join its Youth Advi­so­ry Council.

Dur­ing their two-year term, the new and return­ing mem­bers will sup­port Casey’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Strat­e­gy Group, which part­ners with state and local stake­hold­ers and agen­cies to advance juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem reforms.

Read about the for­ma­tion of the Juve­nile Jus­tice Youth Advi­so­ry Group

All 12 indi­vid­u­als tapped to serve on the coun­cil have per­son­al expe­ri­ence with some aspect of the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem, whether it’s pro­ba­tion, deten­tion, com­mit­ment, res­i­den­tial place­ment, incar­cer­a­tion or aftercare.

This first­hand per­spec­tive informs the mem­bers’ wide-rang­ing inter­ests, which include:

• Stop­ping young peo­ple from get­ting trans­ferred into adult pris­ons ​“and learn­ing to become bet­ter crim­i­nals instead of bet­ter citizens.”
• Devel­op­ing train­ing for facil­i­ty staff to bet­ter under­stand the role of trau­ma in the lives of incar­cer­at­ed youth and ​“see the ele­ment of human con­nec­tion restored in these ster­ile environments.”
• Cre­at­ing age-appro­pri­ate pub­li­ca­tions, such as a graph­ic nov­el that advis­es youth about mak­ing the most of their time in pro­ba­tion and a guide that details how youth can get their juve­nile records expunged.

As emerg­ing lead­ers in jus­tice reform, the advi­so­ry coun­cil mem­bers have oppor­tu­ni­ties to impact the youth jus­tice land­scape beyond their coun­cil roles. They do this by speak­ing at forums, serv­ing on state advi­so­ry groups and par­tic­i­pat­ing in advo­ca­cy campaigns.

About the Youth Advi­so­ry Council

Casey launched the Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil in 2015. Today, in the wake of select­ing its sec­ond cohort of mem­bers, two of the council’s many ben­e­fits include:

1. Help­ing youth devel­op their lead­er­ship and advo­ca­cy skills and learn more about the juve­nile jus­tice field. ​“The young peo­ple rec­og­nize that they need exper­tise in more areas than just their lived expe­ri­ence to be the best pos­si­ble agents of change,” says Nate Balis, direc­tor of the Foundation’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Strat­e­gy Group.
2. Help­ing inform reform efforts. ​“Young peo­ple are can­did about what works and what doesn’t,” says Balis. ​“They’re also able to advise state and local juve­nile jus­tice sys­tems on gath­er­ing input from youth in their care, and they have cred­i­bil­i­ty as mes­sen­gers to pol­i­cy mak­ers and practitioners.”

Learn more about the Foundation’s juve­nile jus­tice work