The Annie E. Casey Foundation announced funding for three juvenile justice reform projects led by youth and young adults who have personal experience with the justice system. Seeking to elevate the voices and leadership potential of these young people, the Foundation issued a request for proposals with the help of alumni from Casey’s Juvenile Justice Youth Advisory Council.
The three grantees are the Center for Justice-Impacted Students at Middlesex College in New Jersey, the Legal Aid Society in New York City and the Final 5 Campaign in Illinois. They were selected from a pool of 64 proposals by council alumni, Foundation staff and others. Each will receive a $50,000 grant.
“We received a strong response to the request for proposals, many of which were quite good,” says David E. Brown, senior associate with the Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Strategy Group. “The grantees we chose demonstrated the highest level of youth engagement and leadership by youth affected by the juvenile justice system.”