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Building the Field of Ethical, Authentic, and Youth-led Advocacy: Key Components of a Youth Advocacy Program is twelve years in the making with countless social workers, attorneys, graduate interns, fellows, and young advocates with lived experience working and re-working to craft a model for developing youth-led advocacy efforts and programming.

In a monumental win for youth held in facilities in Philadelphia, today City Council and the Mayor struck a budget deal which created an independent youth ombudsman office to receive calls about abuse from families and youth who have been committed to residential facilities by behavioral health, intellectual disability, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems.

This week marks the overlap of Reentry Week, Second Chances Month, and Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The convergence of these events creates an opportunity for important conversations about second chances for youth adjudicated delinquent for sexual offenses.

The following testimony was written and will be read by Juvenile Law Center's Youth Fostering Change and Juveniles for Justice Youth Advocates on April 8th at a virtual hearing on the need for a Philadelphia independent youth ombudsperson.