Youth Ideas for Change by Profession
Strategies For Workforce and Employment Professionals
- 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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