Our work · Juvenile Justice
Every young person. Every front.
Inside the detention centers of Miami-Dade and Broward, every week in Little Haiti, on the West Side of Chicago, and in cities across the country. This is the work, as it runs today.
Where we are
We go where young people are.
Most help reaches a young person after the record has already been written. We work earlier and we stay longer: inside detention, in diversion before a case goes further, through the months home, and alongside the leaders rebuilding this work city by city.
Geography, transportation and custody status should never be the reason a young person goes unserved.
01 · Miami-Dade and Broward
Inside the detention centers.
Every week our team and volunteers go inside the juvenile detention centers in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. We teach life skills, give lectures, lead groups and chaplaincy, and play football and basketball with the young people held there. The game earns the conversation.
When a young person goes home, we make the referral and stay in touch with them and their family through re-entry. The relationship does not end at the gate.
02 · Little Haiti, Miami
Every week, the same door.
In Little Haiti we run our re-entry program and our program for young people facing gun offenses, every week, at our center with full-court gyms, classrooms and space for families.
Group sessions, mentoring, gym time, service projects and family engagement, built on the Youth Intervention Program. A mentor relationship that keeps going after the last session.
03 · North Lawndale, Chicago
Diverted, not detained.
On the West Side of Chicago, we work with The Firehouse Community Arts Center in North Lawndale on a State’s Attorney diversion program. Young people who engage in the program are diverted from jail and detention.
Our curriculum and our partnership team work with them twice a week: mentoring and cognitive behavioral work in the afternoon, then arts with the Firehouse into the evening. A converted firehouse, covered in neighborhood murals, where a young person gets to be more than a case number.
04 · The Unchained Tour
Rebuilding it city by city.
The Unchained Tour convenes leaders in major cities with juvenile justice hubs and high rates of violence. We are galvanizing their efforts, rebuilding teams and reestablishing grassroots work on the ground. The tour is still underway.
05 · Every Youth, Every Facility
Equipping the people who go in.
Every Youth, Every Facility is the national initiative of our partner Straight Ahead Ministries, and we are in it together. Both organizations offer curriculum, training and coaching for churches, volunteers and leaders who want to serve young people in facilities and do it well.
06 · Film in the community
Stories that open the room.
Films like Normalized and The Ritual of Manhood, made with our production partners, go into schools, churches, community centers and facilities with a guided conversation afterward. A young person will sit through a film about their own block. Then they will talk.
The word we stand on
Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless.
Isaiah 1:17
Your move
Build it with us.
Start with whichever fits.
- Refer a young personProbation officers, schools, families and partners: reach out. It costs the family nothing.
- Volunteer insideLife skills, lectures, sports and mentoring. Screened and trained. Apply.
- Get trainedCurriculum, training and coaching for your church or team. Start here.
- Give monthlyKeep the team inside every week. Join the Revolutionaries.