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Watch Two New "In Our Words Video Series" Testimonials:

Vanessah Rojas:

Dylan Keane:

 

 

Online bidding now open for silent auction
Visit our auction page on our website to get a head start on bidding on prime items including hand-crafted jewelry and art, locally-made wine, museum passes, sports tickets, and much more.

Bidding details and instructions are available here. Online bidding will close on Monday, May 23rd at 12 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. The auction will re-open as a live silent auction on the night of the event, Celebrating 10 Years of Mentoring at YJI. You do not have to be present to win.


YJI Spring 2011 Newsletter Now Available
In this issue:

and More!

Preliminary Findings from 100 Girls Study

100 Girls Preliminary Look- Cover100 Girls: A Preliminary Look at the Lives and Outcomes of Young Women Incarcerated in San Francisco Juvenile Hall (Early Release Version) - Preliminary findings of a comprehensive study of the experience of girls in the juvenile justice system in San Francisco.
(Download PDF)

YJI in the News
YJI's Director of Mentoring Programs, Kaina Walker, speaks on the importance of working with young people in the contexts in which they live in an article from the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth. (click link above for article)

Stanislaus County Collaborative Releases Stanislaus Plan Cover
Strategic Plan for Distribution
For the past year, YJI has been working in a collaborativeeffort in Stanislaus County to to help the Stanislaus County juvenile justice system implement gender-responsive programming and services. Partners include Prison Law Office, NCCD Center for Girls and Young Women, and Stanislaus County Probation Department. Download the strategic plan, here: Stanislaus County Girls Juvenile Justice Initiative: Improving Services for Justice-Involved Girls

YJI Winter 2010 Newsletter is now available. In this issue: video interview with Alejandro Ante III on being a mentor, youth art and writing on the theme "Looking Back, Moving Forward," overview of YJI's technical assistance work, mentoring programs expand with MCP grant, a year in numbers, and more!
{View it online}

YJI's 2010 Year End Appeal poster, "Looking Back, Moving Forward," is now available to view or download, below. (Note: click the top/right button, below, to open the file in google docs, or click here to download the pdf).

 

PRESS RELEASE:
Youth Justice Institute Receives Federal Grant to Expand its Through the Walls: Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents Program

Oakland, California—October 20, 2010—Youth Justice Institute (YJI) was awarded a $675,000 federal grant from the Family and Youth Services Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services. The “Mentoring Children of Prisoners” grant supports the creation and maintenance of one-on-one mentoring relationships between children of incarcerated parents and caring, supportive adult volunteers. The new grant will allow YJI to serve 200 youth in San Francisco and Alameda counties over a three-year period.

“Getting this grant has been a complete blessing,” says Kaina T. Walker, founding mentor and Director of Mentoring Programs at YJI. “It allows us to grow our mentoring program to a very unique population—those children and families being torn apart due to incarceration.”

An estimated two million youth—disproportionately youth of color—currently have a parent in prison or jail in the United States. An estimated 292,000 youth have a parent incarcerated in California.

“Parental incarceration can have a devastating effect on children—they often face trauma, stigma, isolation, anger and incarceration themselves,” says Walker.

YJI’s Through the Walls program and others like it create support structures for these youth, connecting them with adult mentors who serve as positive role models. The program aims to support youth in relationship with their families and communities, building on existing ties and connecting families to a wide array of support services.

YJI thanks its community partners whose letters of support helped bring this resource to the Bay Area.

Since 2002, YJI has supported youth involved in juvenile justice and dependency systems in California through direct services and by facilitating positive change in the systems that affect them.

To enroll in the program as a mentor or mentee, or for more information about the program, contact Kaina T. Walker at kaina@yjinstitute.org.

Media Contact:
Georgiana Hernandez, Co-Executive Director
Youth Justice Institute
510.238.0140 x304
georgiana@yjinstitute.org
436 14th St, Ste. 1116, Oakland CA  94612
www.yjinstitute.org

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Newsletter Archive

Fall 2010 in this issue: YJI and Planning for Change merge, new News in Brief section, Board of Directors expands to Twelve, program updates and more!

April 2010 in this issue: preliminary findings from YJI's 100 Girls Study, welcome to new board member Roger Chan and new youth advocate Willie Gray, and more!

December 2009 in this issue: YJI's Karen Moore sworn in as Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), YJI Fall/Winter Graduation is recapped, Philip Atkinson honored as Mentor of the Semester, and more!

October 2009 in this issue: new partnerships, teen dating workshop, Orange County girls' court, YJI's Kaina Terrazas Walker wins Cheyenne Bell Award, welcome to new team members Laila Khan Winter, Christian Henricksen, Alexis Aragon, Isaac Reed, and Maria Reynoso, and more!

Summer 2009 in this issue: new Oakland program in numbers, YJI featured in IMPACT journal, and more!

Spring 2009 in this issue: "Boys Report" highlights local and national findings about boys in the system, YJI presents at the McCullum Youth Court Summit, and more! PDF version