Casey Seeks Applicants for 2019–21 Juvenile Justice Youth Advisory Council

This Youth Jus­tice Aware­ness Month, the Casey Foun­da­tion seeks emerg­ing youth jus­tice lead­ers from around the coun­try to join its 2019–21 Juve­nile Jus­tice Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil. Can­di­dates have until Fri­day, Nov. 16, to apply. A webi­nar for prospec­tive can­di­dates will be held on Thurs­day, Oct. 18, at 1 p.m. ET.

Lis­ten to our webi­nar for applicants

Coun­cil mem­bers sup­port and con­tribute to a nation­al juve­nile jus­tice reform move­ment. Ide­al can­di­dates are young adults, ages 18 to 25, who are inter­est­ed in strength­en­ing their lead­er­ship and advo­ca­cy skills as emerg­ing lead­ers in juve­nile jus­tice reform. In addi­tion, they will have cur­rent or past expe­ri­ence with the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem them­selves — such as pro­ba­tion, deten­tion, res­i­den­tial place­ment, incar­cer­a­tion or after­care — and be eager to work in part­ner­ship with Casey’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Strat­e­gy Group (JJSG) and with state and local juve­nile jus­tice systems.

New this year, can­di­dates are invit­ed to apply either as indi­vid­u­als or as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of their local or state youth coun­cils. The lat­ter should rep­re­sent a coun­cil that has an explic­it focus on the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem or youth jus­tice reform, where at least 50% of mem­bers have for­mer or cur­rent juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem involve­ment and the nom­i­nee has past or cur­rent sys­tem involvement.

“Part­ner­ships like the one between JJSG and the mem­bers of the Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil thrive when pow­er is shared and when orga­ni­za­tions posi­tion young peo­ple to mean­ing­ful­ly con­tribute,” said Zainab Farhat, a Casey pro­gram asso­ciate. ​“The Foun­da­tion believes that young peo­ple should be engaged as key part­ners in the deci­sion mak­ing that affects them.”

The full coun­cil is made up of 12 mem­bers who rep­re­sent a range of expe­ri­ences with the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem. Coun­cil mem­bers work togeth­er to devel­op rec­om­men­da­tions that inform and strength­en Casey’s work. Coun­cil mem­bers review mate­ri­als, con­tribute to draft­ing and edit­ing reports and pre­sen­ta­tions, con­duct field research, attend and present at con­fer­ences and meet­ings and par­tic­i­pate in pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment activ­i­ties and email dis­cus­sions. Coun­cil mem­ber respon­si­bil­i­ties include active par­tic­i­pa­tion in the JDAIcon­nect online com­mu­ni­ty.

Can­di­dates should have prob­lem-solv­ing and crit­i­cal-think­ing skills and a will­ing­ness to lis­ten and learn. Strong writ­ing and pub­lic speak­ing skills, polit­i­cal aware­ness, inter­per­son­al skills and knowl­edge of Casey’s Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive® and JJSG are a plus.

Mem­bers of the Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil are com­pen­sat­ed for their time and expect­ed to com­mit an aver­age of five hours per month toward the council’s work and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. Coun­cil mem­bers also are expect­ed to attend in-per­son meet­ings in Bal­ti­more a min­i­mum of three times per year, which are each sched­uled for three full days on a Thurs­day through Sat­ur­day, and par­tic­i­pate in select­ed con­fer­ences. Trav­el costs are cov­ered by the Foun­da­tion. Coun­cil mem­bers serve for a two-year term and may be con­sid­ered for reappointment.

A lim­it­ed num­ber of can­di­dates will be select­ed for an inter­view dur­ing the recruit­ment process. If a can­di­date is select­ed for an inter­view, he or she will be con­tact­ed direct­ly. Can­di­dates who are inter­viewed will be noti­fied of a final deci­sion by late Jan­u­ary 2019.

Please con­tact either of the fol­low­ing with any ques­tions: Kelsey John­son, pro­gram man­ag­er, Com­mu­ni­ty Law in Action, at 410.706.3875, or Zainab Farhat, Casey pro­gram asso­ciate, at 410.223.3330.

Resources for Applicants

• Read the overview document
• Lis­ten to our webi­nar for candidates
• Apply online as an indi­vid­ual member
• Apply online as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of a local or state youth council
• Down­load the appli­ca­tion for indi­vid­ual members
• Down­load the appli­ca­tion for rep­re­sen­ta­tives of a local or state youth council

Edi­tor’s note: This post was updat­ed on Oct. 20, 2018, to share the can­di­date webinar.