| What
is the Youth Justice Institute?
The mission of the Youth Justice Institute (YJI) is to effectively address the needs of system-involved youth so they transition into healthy adults. We accomplish this through direct service, information sharing, partnerships, and advancing the knowledge of what works. YJI began in 2002 as the Girls Justice Initiative (GJI), which was a project of United Way of the Bay Area (UWBA). We had a three year commitment from the UWBA to develop an initiative that would respond to the increasing number of girls involved in the juvenile justice system and increasing percentage of girls detained in San Francisco Juvenile Hall.
The Challenge
Despite an overall drop in juvenile crime during the last
few years, girls are the fastest growing segment of the juvenile
justice population, with delinquency cases involving girls
increasing by 83 percent between 1988 and 1997. Unfortunately,
the majority of these girls cycle through the juvenile justice
system more than once, and 13 percent will return more than
nine times.
The Solution
GJI has developed a collaborative framework to link girls
in the juvenile justice system with gender- and culturally-appropriate
services that ensure that they graduate into healthy and safer
lives. This is accomplished through a number of strategies
including:
- Establishing a culture of collaboration between the probation
department and community-based organizations to make the
best use of limited resources.
- Capturing data to measure and improve accountability.
- Providing training and support to agencies that serve
at-risk and detained girls.
Publications and Videos
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