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Before I worked at Juvenile Law Center, I worked at the Empower Program, the District Alliance for Safe Housing, and Men Can Stop Rape (now MCSR). I have had the privilege of being front and center in the sexual violence prevention field. I know that there are creative, dedicated activists and advocates ready to make common cause with those fighting to ultimately abolish the juvenile legal and foster systems – and to build something instead that works for all children.

The year is 2016. The United States Supreme Court just issued the most consequential decision for children condemned to die in prison. In Montgomery v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court fulfilled the promise it made four years earlier in Miller v. Alabama – that children could not receive mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole.

As we enter a new year filled with uncertainty, one thing is clear – we need to keep fighting for children in the justice and foster care systems. 

Juvenile Law Center has been a leader in the fight against unnecessary family policing and in favor of family preservation for 50 years. Our litigation helped to create pressure for the federal law that required family preservation services. Subsequently, widely referenced publications, trainings, and advocacy led by youth with lived experience in the family regulation system gave the law teeth and led to additional reforms. Despite this work, the over-reach of the family regulation system continues, and Juvenile Law Center remains committed to safely keeping families together.

Youth partnerships have been a cornerstone for advocacy work at Juvenile Law Center for decades. Although our approach to engaging youth partners has evolved over time, the core value of experience-led advocacy persists.

Our country stands on the precipice of dangerous cuts to the social safety net. SNAP benefits will be cut off on Saturday, pulling food assistance from 40 million people in this country – the majority of which are children.

During this year’s YJAM (Youth Justice Action Month), I was drawn towards a re-read of Kristin Henning’s remarkable text: The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth.