Youth Ideas for Change by Profession

• Provide relevant and age appropriate guidance on the entire incarceration experience from arrest to reentry including:
  • What families and the incarcerated parent can expect at each stage in the process
  • Help finding job training
  • Help finding stable housing

Additionally, we have identified 11 strategies that apply across all professions:

• Get to know us: we are not statistics; we are youth who come from different backgrounds and family circumstances
• See us for who and what we are
• Know yourself: be aware of the assumptions and biases that you may have about us
• Let us know we can trust you. Be reliable and predictable. Listen without judgment
• Respect our right to confidentiality
• Help us to help each other by providing us with opportunities to gather together
• Help us channel our emotions into making a positive change through advocacy
• Honor our inner strength: don’t feel sorry for us
• Involve youth of incarcerated parents and their families in decisions about programs, policies and practices
• Agencies should understand the complexities of collaboration with and between other agencies (such as schools and corrections) because of confidentiality requirements
• Create lists of available resources and make them accessible

 
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