National Organizations and Programs
This section highlights national or other state-specific organizations and programs which focus on juvenile justice issues.
American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Committee
The Juvenile Justice Center provides training and technical assistance to the juvenile justice community. The Juvenile Justice Center is a program of the ABA Criminal Justice Section.
Anne E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Feature
The Casey Foundation’s juvenile justice reform agenda is designed to improve the odds that delinquent youth can make successful transitions to adulthood, primarily by reforming juvenile justice system so that they lock up fewer youth, rely more on proven, family-focused interventions, and create opportunities for positive youth development.
Building Blocks for Youth
The Building Blocks for Youth initiative is an alliance of children and youth advocates, researchers, law enforcement professionals and community organizers that seeks to: 1. Reduce overrepresentation and disparate treatment of youth of color in the justice system; 2. Promote fair, rational and effective juvenile justice policies.
Campaign for Youth Justice
The Campaign for Youth Justice (C4YJ) is a national campaign dedicated to ending the practice of trying, sentencing and incarcerating children under the age of 18 in the adult justice system by empowering those moved to act for youth justice.
Center for Public Integrity
The Center for Public Integrity conducts independent investigative reporting and produces media stories on juvenile justice issues, distributing original journalism through its network of media outlets.
Child Welfare League of America, Juvenile Justice Division
The Child Welfare League of America is the nation’s oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization. CWLA is committed to engaging people everywhere in promoting the well-being of children, youth, and their families, and protecting every child from harm.
Girls’ Justice Initiative
The Girls’ Justice Initiative is a national collaboration of organizations and individuals dedicated to promoting equity and justice for girls involved in the juvenile justice and related systems. Through research, public education, and advocacy the Girls’ Justice Initiative identifies areas for reform, develops policy recommendations and promotes gender responsive policies and practices so that fewer girls enter the justice system and those in the system receive just treatment which is responsive to their needs and nurtures their strengths.
JJ Matters: Florida
A website focusing on juvenile justice matters in Florida, in partner with Children’s Campaign Inc.
Juvenile Law Center
Founded in 1975 as a non-profit legal service, Juvenile Law Center (JLC) is one of the oldest children’s rights organizations in the United States. JLC works on behalf of children who have come within the purview of public agencies – for example, abused or neglected children placed in foster homes, delinquent youth sent to residential treatment facilities or adult prisons, or children in placement with specialized services needs.
Juvienation: A Comprehensive,
National Blog About Juvenile Justice
This blog gives a comprehensive and accurate snapshot of juvenile justice across the nation, and features links to articles about what’s happening now in America.
Models for Change
The Models for Change initiative is an effort to create successful and replicable models of juvenile justice system reform through targeted investments in key states.
National Center for Juvenile Justice
The National Center for Juvenile Justice (the Center) is a private, non-profit organization. Since its inception in 1973, the Center has been a resource for independent and original research on topics related directly and indirectly to the field of juvenile justice.
National Juvenile Justice Network
The National Juvenile Justice Network enhances the ability of statewide juvenile justice coalitions to advocate for fair, equitable and developmentally appropriate adjudication and treatment for all youth and families involved in the juvenile justice system.
New England Juvenile Defender Center
The New England Juvenile Defender Center was created to ensure excellence in juvenile defense and promote justice for all children. A separate area of the site includes information and research about juvenile justice in Connecticut.
The Sentencing Project’s Race and Justice Clearinghouse
A database of annotated citations for more than 450 research articles, studies, reports, and books that explore the intersection of race and ethnicity within the criminal justice and juvenile justice systems.
Stop the School to Jailhouse Track
Stop the School the Jailhouse Track provides resources to eliminate the criminalization of students by schools. The website is a one-stop shop to learn about on-the-ground efforts to address this destructive trend. It aims to grow the movement to end the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track by providing grassroots groups, parents, youth, advocates, educators and others with a variety of tools, resources, and successful practices and lessons learned.
The W. Haywood Burns Institute
The W. Haywood Burns Institute is a leading national organization working to reduce the overrepresentation of youth of color in the juvenile justice system.
Vera Institute of Justice
The Vera Institute of Justice works closely with leaders in government and civil society to improve the services people rely on for safety and justice. Vera develops innovative, affordable programs that often grow into self-sustaining organizations, studies social problems and current responses, and provides practical advice and assistance to government officials in New York and around the world.
What Kids Need: Developmental Assets | Search Institute
The Developmental Assets are 40 common sense, positive experiences and qualities that help influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible adults. Studies of more than 2.2 million young people in the United States consistently show that the more assets young people have, the less likely they are to engage in a wide range of high-risk behaviors and the more likely they are to thrive. Assets have power for all young people, regardless of their gender, economic status, family, or race/ethnicity.
Youth Law Center
The Youth Law Center is a non-profit, public interest law office that has worked to protect abused and at-risk children since 1978. With offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., the Center works nationally to serve children, focusing particularly upon the problems of children living apart from their families in child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The goal of the Youth Law Center’s work is to ensure that vulnerable children are provided with the conditions and services they need to grow into healthy, productive adults.
Youth Radio
This group produces independent investigative reports on juvenile justice, which it distributes through a host of national media outlets.