Heart of YJR is a youth-led and youth-focused space to engage with LA County’s Youth Justice Reimagined (YJR) efforts. Everyday, the County is making decisions for young people, without the meaningful feedback and guidance from young people who are most impacted by those issues and decisions. One of the core values of YJR is community participation, and the young people and community engaged in YJR want to make sure this process is shaped by the people who are most impacted, and that the YJR implementation truly contributes to the wellbeing, happiness and safety of youth in Los Angeles County. 

• Create space to share about the history and purpose of YJR with young people and other community members in ways that is accessible, more playful, and meaningful

• Facilitate space for youth and other system impacted people to share about their experiences and needs so that these can act as a guide for the design and implementation of YJR and the Department of Youth Development (DYD) plans

• Support youth and other community members in having the orientation, background, and information to participate in other Youth Justice Advisory Groups (YJAG) workgroups and other YJR spaces

• Offer first landing space for new young people and community members to engage in YJR work

• Support and increase YJR and DYD accountability to community and young people

The hope is to make this space accessible to all young people. Youth and other community members are invited to come (See schedule with more information below. Note that we may change the days and times we meet). For the moment, we are able to compensate for young people’s time and contributions with a $25-$30 stipend per session per youth.

So far, we have covered topics such as history and grounding of YJR, information about how to get engaged with YJR and other youth justice spaces such as the LA Youth Uprising Coalition (LAYUP), history of the criminalization of young people, experiences in the system, YJR proposals like Youth Empowerment and Support (YES) Teams, mental health, substance use, and healing practices, among others.

For questions and more information contact us at jacob@youth4justice.org and lupitacarballo@youth4justice.org.