Youth Justice Program
The Youth Justice Program works to nurture young people’s visions for change.
Through the Youth Justice Program members plan and carry out their own campaigns: The Trauma Care Campaign and the Restorative Justice Reinvestment Campaign.
The Restorative Justice Reinvestment Campaign is a campaign to develop the leadership of youth impacted by juvenile detention to close the Juvenile Detention Center and replace it with alternative programs in the neighborhoods where youth are get locked up.
The Trauma Care Campaign advocates for the development of a trauma center on the South Side.
History of the Youth Justice Program
The Youth Justice Program began in 2007 when tenants involved in STOP’s housing
work began thinking about how they could engage their sons and daughters around
issues that directly affect youth. With that goal in mind, STOP launched a community
organizing summer internship program. Over the course of the program the youth
developed their own organization.
During
the first summer internship program, participants were outraged by stories from
friends and family about escalating violence, abuse, and neglect inside
the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. In response to these conditions, we joined forces with another
youth organization, Generation Y (Gen Y) of the Southwest Youth Collaborative to launch a project to pressure the center’s administration to establish
humane conditions in the detention center, and reform the juvenile justice
system by developing community- based alternatives to child incarceration.
We organized a press conference outside
of a Cook County Board meeting where they delivered 100 pairs of underwear for
Audy Home residents (who were being denied clean underwear) and demanded
immediate humane conditions. Though our gift was never delivered,
the staff immediately responded by providing the youth with clean underwear.
We also conducted a research project documenting abuses in
the Detention Center through interviews with former detainees, which they compiled
with outside research. They shared their findings at a teach-in attended by the Detention Center director. At the teach-in we were granted regular
monitoring tours of the Audy Home.
Youth leaders conducted tours and meet with detention center administration to learn about the
juvenile justice system and push for reforms. We also built relationships
with people key to implementing reforms.
As we learned about reforms we became exposed to Restorative Justice as an alternative to detention and incarceration and began advocating to expand it and implement within our organization. In 2014 - 2016 we teamed up with the Community Renewal Society to win a commitment of a $1M of funding for Restorative Justice alternatives.
Trauma Care Campaign
As we learned about reforms we became exposed to Restorative Justice as an alternative to detention and incarceration and began advocating to expand it and implement within our organization. In 2014 - 2016 we teamed up with the Community Renewal Society to win a commitment of a $1M of funding for Restorative Justice alternatives.
Trauma Care Campaign
In
the summer of 2010, Damian Turner, a youth leader, was shot and
killed in the crossfire of a drive-by. Damian
was taken past the University of Chicago Hospital—only three blocks away—to
Northwestern Hospital, where he died. Young people discovered that the reason he
was taken so far is the lack of a trauma center on the south side of the City. In response to
his passing, we started a project
to get a trauma center on the south side. Damian's death touched every part of the community and brought many
people together.
Over the next few years we organized a coalition, the Trauma Care Coalition, which now includes: Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Students for Health Equity, Jewish Council of Urban Affairs, National Nurses United, and the Interfaith Leadership Committee. After a five-year direct action organizing campaign the Trauma Care Coalition succeeded in winning a commitment from the University of Chicago Hospital to open up a trauma center on their south side campus. We are now organizing to ensure community input and accountability in the development of the trauma center.
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Over the next few years we organized a coalition, the Trauma Care Coalition, which now includes: Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Students for Health Equity, Jewish Council of Urban Affairs, National Nurses United, and the Interfaith Leadership Committee. After a five-year direct action organizing campaign the Trauma Care Coalition succeeded in winning a commitment from the University of Chicago Hospital to open up a trauma center on their south side campus. We are now organizing to ensure community input and accountability in the development of the trauma center.
