Proposals From Youth Justice Organizations Sought to Create Career Opportunities

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion requests pro­pos­als from youth jus­tice orga­ni­za­tions to cre­ate paid posi­tions for emerg­ing pro­fes­sion­als with expe­ri­ence in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem. The Foun­da­tion will fund up to three such orga­ni­za­tions to hire young pro­fes­sion­als for 12–24 months. The appli­cants will pro­vide the select­ed youth with mean­ing­ful pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ences and career growth in the youth jus­tice field.

Build­ing Youth Jus­tice Careers

Through this grant, the Foun­da­tion hopes to:

• con­nect young peo­ple who have direct expe­ri­ence in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem and career inter­ests in youth jus­tice with orga­ni­za­tions in the field;
• pro­vide pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ences that help youth with juve­nile jus­tice expe­ri­ence devel­op tan­gi­ble, mar­ketable skills that align with future career require­ments; and
• encour­age orga­ni­za­tions to cre­ate and sus­tain paid career oppor­tu­ni­ties for youth with direct jus­tice-sys­tem expe­ri­ence after the grant peri­od and with­out grant funds.

The RFP allows orga­ni­za­tions to apply with a spe­cif­ic young per­son who meets the cri­te­ria, or orga­ni­za­tions can be matched with a young per­son already known to the Foundation.

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Young Pro­fes­sion­al Eligibility

The young adults will have a demon­strat­ed com­mit­ment to the youth jus­tice field and an inter­est in pur­su­ing a career in the field. The young pro­fes­sion­als will have had direct expe­ri­ence in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem with­in the last 12 years and are now between 18 and 30 years old. Their expe­ri­ence may include being a juve­nile charged in the adult sys­tem or expe­ri­ence with juve­nile court adju­di­ca­tion, pro­ba­tion or out-of-home place­ment in a juve­nile deten­tion cen­ter or cor­rec­tion­al facility. 

Eli­gi­bil­i­ty and Selec­tion Cri­te­ria for Organizations

Non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions with 501(c)(3) sta­tus or that have a fis­cal spon­sor with 501(c)(3) sta­tus or pub­lic agen­cies are eli­gi­ble to apply. The select­ed orga­ni­za­tion and the young pro­fes­sion­al would joint­ly cre­ate a scope of work that helps the young pro­fes­sion­al achieve the kind of tan­gi­ble and mar­ketable skills like­ly to be pre­ferred by future employ­ers. The young professional’s con­tri­bu­tions should be mean­ing­ful and spe­cif­ic, con­tribut­ing to strat­e­gy and deci­sion mak­ing with­in the orga­ni­za­tion and align­ing with the young pro­fes­sion­al’s goals and career aspirations.

In addi­tion to sub­stan­tive projects and tasks, the select­ed orga­ni­za­tions must pro­vide the young pro­fes­sion­als with ongo­ing men­tor­ing and oppor­tu­ni­ties to inter­act with the organization’s senior leadership.

The Scope of the Grants

The Foun­da­tion will make grants to three orga­ni­za­tions. The max­i­mum grant to an orga­ni­za­tion will be $100,000 for a 12–24-month grant peri­od, con­tin­gent on whether the young pro­fes­sion­al is offered a full- or part-time posi­tion. The grants will cov­er the young professional’s salary and ben­e­fits pack­age and the organization’s indi­rect costs. Rec­om­mend­ed com­pen­sa­tion is $60,000 annu­al­ly for a full-time posi­tion of 35–40 hours per week.

Pre-Bid Con­fer­ence

The Foun­da­tion held a pre-bid con­fer­ence for poten­tial appli­cants on Thurs­day, Sept. 29, 2022.

Key Dates for Prospec­tive Organizations

Inter­est­ed orga­ni­za­tions should noti­fy the Foun­da­tion of their intent to apply no lat­er than Tues­day, Oct. 4, 2022. The dead­line for com­plet­ed pro­pos­als is Fri­day, Oct. 14, 2022.

Please sub­mit ques­tions, intent to apply and pro­pos­als to Foun­da­tion Senior Asso­ciate David Brown and copy Pro­gram Asso­ciate Imhotep Sim­ba.

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