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Families & Allies of Virginia's Youth


701 S. Wayne Street
Arlington, VA 22204
Phone: 703-338-3289
Web: www.favyouth.org

Liane Rozzell
Email: liane@favyouth.org

Organization Profile
Families & Allies of Virginia's Youth (FAVY) started as a group of concerned advocates and family members of young people in Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center. We could see that the juvenile justice system was not working for our children. We decided to form a group to push for changes at Beaumont and statewide.

We are especially concerned about Virginia’s youth prisons and the conditions inside them. It costs $102,204 to hold a youth in a juvenile prison for one year. But youth prisons are a failed, outdated approach. About two-thirds of kids released from
these facilities are convicted of a new crime within three years.

Children confined in Virginia’s youth prisons are often far from their families and community, making a successful transition home difficult. Many children in the juvenile justice system have mental health needs that are not adequately met in the youth prisons.

Youth of color are dramatically overrepresented at every level of Virginia’s juvenile justice system. This is especially true of the youth prisons, where 72% of the youth are African American or Latino, even though they are 30% of Virginia’s youth population.

There Is a Better Way!

We speak out and seek fair and effective treatment for all young people in Virginia’s juvenile justice system. Instead of youth prisons, we are pushing for Virginia to use a system of small, local rehabilitation programs based on proven models. This will give our young people the best chance at success and do a better job of maintaining public safety. Other states have done this, and it works!

We support prevention and diversion efforts that keep kids out of the system. This includes adequate community mental health treatment.

» Executive Director, Liane Rozzell - NJJN Featured Member - April 2012

 

JustChildren, Legal Aid Justice Center


1000 Preston Avenue, Suite A
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Phone:  434-977-0553
Web: www.justice4all.org/our_programs/justchildren

Angela Ciolfi
Phone:  434-977-0553  x110
Email: angela@justice4all.org

Kate Duvall
Phone: 434-977-0553  x146
Email: kate@justice4all.org

Organization Profile
The Legal Aid Justice Center’s JustChildren Program is Virginia’s largest children’s law program. We rely on a range of strategies to make sure that Virginia’s most vulnerable young people receive the services and support they need to lead successful lives in their communities.

We provide free civil legal representation to low-income children statewide who have problems with the education, foster care, and juvenile justice systems. While the kinds of cases we take vary, our primary objective is to protect our clients’ right to stay in their communities and in their schools, and to live in safe situations. The children we represent have a wide variety of needs.

To make sure that more clients have strong support, we produce widely read and valued training materials for lawyers and parents alike, and travel throughout the state training parents, lawyers, and other child-serving professionals to become informed and skilled advocates.

To further strengthen the communities we serve, we support local organizing efforts and coalition building in the communities we serve. We have helped parents and community members start groups in Richmond and Petersburg that are dedicated to improving educational opportunities for children in those cities.

The JustChildren Program seeks local and statewide reforms to improve the systems that our children depend on. We change policies to improve public education and the juvenile justice system. Through coalition building, policy advocacy, and litigation, we make lasting improvements for all children in Virginia.

Locale: Virginia
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