Cathy Moffa, MSS, MLSP
Cathy Moffa joined Juvenile Law Center's staff in July 2013, after previously interning with the Youth Advocacy Program while finishing her master’s in social work and law and social policy. For over a decade, Cathy has been diligently working to transform youth-led advocacy efforts through thoughtful programmatic planning and development, and in partnership with youth and communities impacted by systems of harm. As the Senior Manager of Youth Partnerships, Cathy manages the youth fellowship program and develops measures for youth and community partner collaboration alongside staff. Additionally, Cathy provides technical assistance to external partners about youth-led advocacy guiding principles and efforts.
Cathy is passionate about experience-led advocacy efforts that are trauma-informed and place those most impacted by systems at the forefront of system-transformation. Most notably, Cathy published a tool in 2021 titled Building the Field of Ethical, Authentic, and Youth-led Advocacy: Key Components of a Youth Advocacy Program outlining guiding principles supported by research, active protocols and processes used by staff, and reflections provided by program members to support those who work with youth and youth themselves engage in experience-led advocacy. Subsequently, Cathy developed an accompanying digital toolkit for practitioners to better practice the principles in the publication.
Cathy graduated with dual Master's degrees in Social Service and Law and Social Policy from Bryn Mawr College's Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. She received her undergraduate degree in Sociology from Saint Joseph's University. Prior to her work at Juvenile Law Center, she worked for Bryn Mawr College's Civic Engagement Office as the Partnership Liaison and Praxis Placement Coordinator.
You can read more about the long history of youth partnerships at Juvenile Law Center and how we engaged with youth now through this blog authored by Cathy Moffa titled Youth Advocacy at Juvenile Law Center- Past, Present, and Future.
Photo Credit - John Arroyo of Photography Without Borders