Youth Initiatives

youth initiatives
We invest in young people as leaders within their communities and beyond and support them to reach their self-defined goals.

The Center for Justice Innovation works with youth to create paths to economic mobility, build community safety, and address the inequities and racist policies in the criminal legal system that have disproportionately harmed and criminalized BIPOC youth.  

Transformative relationships among staff, young people, and the community are the foundation of the Center’s model. We invest in young people as leaders within their communities and beyond and support them to reach their self-defined goals.

Initiatives

  • Youth Impact

    Youth can be transformative leaders, addressing inequity in their communities and the factors that lead to youth involvement in the criminal legal system.  

  • Identity-Based Initiatives

    We provide affirming space for young people to explore their identities, build community, pursue self-care, and access healing spaces with an intersectional lens. 

  • Youth Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise

    Social enterprise and entrepreneurship programs nurture young people’s skills to develop career pipelines and start businesses, solve local problems, and support economic development. 

  • Youth-led Placemaking

    Youth-led placemaking forges strong connections between individuals and their environments to create public spaces that foster community well-being. 

  • Youth Arts

    Art engages young people to build creativity, skills, and create networking opportunities to support educational and career trajectories. 

  • Youth Action Institute

    The Youth Action Institute is a public policy research fellowship that supports young New Yorkers in investigating and testing solutions to the issues and policies that affect their lives

  • Young Parent Initiative

    Young Parent Initiative is a new pilot project of the Center to address the needs of young parents so that they can provide social and economic supports for their young children.

Publications & Digital Media

See All Publications and Digital Media →

News

  • NYC's youngest fatal shooting victim this year remembered with a call to action

    March 6, 2024
    Gothamist

    Family members, friends, and neighbors gathered at a playground in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to remember Troy Gill, a 13-year-old boy who was lost to gun violence on February 29. As the community stood together in mourning, they also issued a call to action to mobilize against gun violence and prioritize the safety and well-being of all young people. “We're in a time where a lot of young people don't feel seen and or loved or heard,” said Anthony Rowe, director of our Neighbors in Action program in Crown Heights. “So our path forward is to invest in the youth.”

  • Why are so many young people carrying guns?

    August 24, 2023
    WYPR

    “True healing really requires vulnerability, which is next to impossible in situations of fear or intimidation.” Our researchers Basaime Spate and Rachel Swaner join Sheilah Kast about the findings in our youth gun-carrying report, adding to the timely discussion on gun violence in Baltimore. The relationships between fear, vulnerability, and the security of street networks are key themes on this episode of On the Record.

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We work with reformers around the world.

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