The Michigan Center for Youth Justice (MCYJ) has been awarded a $1,000,000 grant to lead a powerful new coalition aimed at dismantling youth incarceration and building community-led alternatives.
The funding comes from the Public Welfare Foundation’s (PWF) new highly competitive grant launched in February called IGNITING FUTURES: A Youth Justice Grant.
It's an opportunity for PWF to invest in communities and organizations who are advancing transformative change for youth justice.
MCYJ will co-lead the newly formed coalition alongside Wayne State University’s Center for Behavioral Health and Justice and The Delta Project. Together, the organizations will focus on building resources to keep justice-system involved youth safely connected to their families, schools, and communities.
Thena Robinson Mock, Vice President of Programs at the Public Welfare Foundation, said MCYJ’s application stood out because of its unique capacity to leverage state funding to drive down youth incarceration statewide
"... Just a clarity of vision around how they wanted to go about building a coalition power and how they wanted to go about working with partners in their community," Robinson said.
Robinson said success of the grant goes beyond counting simple metrics or "widgets."
She believes true impact will be measured by building a stronger public will and demand for reform for youth justice, inspiring collaborators to join the cause and seeing changes in Michigan communities.
"In Michigan, when we start to see counties really implementing the kinds of reforms that state decision makers have made around leveraging dollars for youth incarceration, that's how we will know that we're having an impact there," said Robinson.
Since it's establishment in 1956, MCYJ "has been a trailblazer" in addressing the root causes of crime. This funding will ramp up their current efforts; helping ensure reforms are implemented well on the ground.
"At a pivotal moment for youth justice in Michigan, this grant allows us to move from policy promise to meaningful practice,” said Jason Smith, Executive Director of MCYJ.
"It gives us more capacity to listen, convene, provide technical support, and keep youth and family needs at the center."
By the end of the two-year grant term, Smith says success would look like more young people and families across Michigan having access to support in their own communities before things "escalate deeper into the justice system."
"... We’d hope to see expanded community-based programming ... and more counties shifting resources toward prevention, diversion, and alternatives to detention," Smith noted.
