(Washington, D.C.)— Durham, North Carolina young leader Alani Rouse has won the National Juvenile Justice Network’s 2019 Young Justice Leader Award.  

Each year, the National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN) honors individuals across the country who demonstrates dedication to reforming the justice system’s treatment of youth by advocating for the fair treatment, promoting racial equity and actively working towards the use of community-based alternatives to incarcerating kids.  

This year, for the first time, NJJN will present the Young Justice Leader Award to a young justice advocate who has shown exemplary dedication to ensuring that the justice system treats all youth fairly and with dignity. Ms. Rouse was nominated to receive the inaugural Young Justice Leader Award by the Youth Justice Project – a project of Durham’s Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), which works to ensure equity, fairness, and justice for youth in high-quality education, juvenile, and criminal systems. 

As a member of the Youth Justice Project’s Youth Steering Committee, Ms. Rouse has demonstrated passion to lead having called for better treatment for youth in North Carolina’s jails and now serving on NJJN’s Membership Advisory Council.   

“We are thrilled to honor Alani for her hard work as a young justice leader. She continues to inspire us with her ability to speak truth to power and advocate for young people in her community, many who are victims of the school-to-prison pipeline, receive discriminatory discipline or do not receive adequate support for mental health challenges,” says Sarah Bryer, Executive Director of NJJN.  

The Young Justice Leader Award will be presented to Ms. Rouse during NJJN's 2019 Forum on Tuesday, July 23rd in Washington, DC.  

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The National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN) leads a movement of state-based organizations and individuals all of whom seek to shrink our youth justice systems and transform the remainder into systems that treat youth and families with dignity and humanity. NJJN works to align all of its efforts with anti-racist principles with the understanding that structural racism is the defining factor of justice systems. NJJN comprises 53 member organizations in 43 states and the District of Columbia and fifty plus alumni of our Youth Justice Leadership Institute. NJJN is the only membership organization of state-based, youth justice advocacy groups, and individuals that addresses the full spectrum of youth justice reform issues. 

Learn more at www.njjn.org