Social Justice Initiative and Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. presents Unlocked! Transforming Youth Justice Systems to Create Safe and Resilient Communities
Convening at Hilton Philadelphia at Penn's Landing
201 S Christopher Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106
In light of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the Unlocked: Transforming Youth Justice Systems to Create Safe and Resilient Communities national conference in Philadelphia has been rescheduled and will now occur on April 15 and 16, 2021.
We look forward to the time when we can safely convene to mobilize our collective creativity and best practice-thinking. Now more than ever, the need is clear for effective community-led youth justice alternatives centered in our neighborhoods -- not prisons -- with a focus on safety, family, empowerment and racial equity.
We appreciate that your priority at this time is the health and wellbeing of your colleagues, families, and everyone in your heart.
The half day conference and full day conference, will support the missions of both the Social Justice Initiative (SJI) housed here at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College and the mission of Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), an international non-profit organization. The SJI was created in 2017 to "utilize four lenses to advance the knowledge, values, and skills of those who seek to co-create a more just world for themselves and our communities: Forgiveness, Courage and Compassion, Cultural Humility, and Radical Love.”
Now 40 years old, the mission of YAP advances "programmatic alternatives to youth incarceration, employing neighborhood-based advocate mentors who empower individuals and families by helping them realize their strengths through connections to accessible community-based tools."
Unlocked! is our moment to generate real momentum and ignite a mass movement to "decarcerate" youth. People impacted in every way by youth incarceration will have space and time to unlock their passions and creativity as they collaborate to explore and demonstrate effective alternatives to out-of-home placement and produce tools to help communities implement them.
Attendees can expect a variety of participants including: social justice nonprofits, social justice foundations, law enforcement professionals, justice system and legal professionals, social workers engaged in education and direct practice with individuals, organizations, communities, and policies, researchers, policy makers, community activists, individuals who have experienced youth incarceration, families impacted by youth incarceration and many more! Through interactive and multi-media presentations and dialogues, participants will share their experiences in working with youth and/or navigating the youth justice systems.
More information coming soon on this exciting, evocative, and provocative one-and-a-half day national conference. Please stay tuned!