CENTER FOR YOUNG WOMENS DEVELOPMENT
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Mission Statement
The Young Women’s Freedom Center was founded in 1993. Our mission is to empower and inspire young women who have been involved with the juvenile justice system and/or the underground street economy to create positive change in their lives and communities.
About This Cause
The Young Women’s Freedom Center meets girls and young women where they are at: on the streets, in juvenile hall, in jail, and in other facilities. We work with girls and young women who are not connected to other programs, who may be on the run from group homes, and who don’t trust service providers and systems that were supposed to care for them but furthered their oppression. Our community is made up of “system involved” young women: young women who are involved with, or have been involved with, systems such as the juvenile and criminal justice system, welfare, social services, mental health, and other agencies. We seek to untangle the web of social services, system involvement, and incarceration that ensnares poor young women of color and prevents them from accessing opportunity and living free. Our visceral experience as system involved women and girls teaches us that services are not enough. We understand the complexity of the challenges we face better than anyone, but we have been locked out of movements for change where we don’t fit the profile of what an activist or an advocate looks like. We believe that system involved girls and young women of color must be at the forefront of movements for change. Our work is not only to run campaigns, programs, and research projects, but to guide young women along a path to leadership. Through the levels of our programs, we support young women in developing their power. Only when young system involved women of color are leaders in our communities and our movements for change we will make real and lasting progress. This is the work that YWFC is doing. This is the world we are making possible. What We Do In order to support young women and to create far reaching systems transformation, we have local, regional, and statewide programs and initiatives. These include: Girls Detention Advocacy Project: We offer skill building opportunities and help young women develop critical thinking, as well as provide one on one support and court advocacy, for young women incarcerated in San Francisco’s Juvenile Hall and Jail. We help young women understand the workings of the system and analyze their own paths through it. We encourage and support young women in making positive, strong decisions for their futures and obtaining the resources necessary to pursue their goals. We build relationships so that we can connect with young women post release. Beyond Survival: We don’t leave our sisters behind. The first step toward developing the leadership of system involved girls and women is to begin a healing process. We provide resources and accompaniment for system involved girls and women in San Francisco struggling to access agency and exit or maintain safety in the underground street economy. Young Mothers United: This group is a place for young system involved moms in San Francisco to connect with other moms. We build skills and community and support each other. Freedom Circles: Our weekly freedom circles cover a variety of topics, all with the aim of building power, confidence, and sisterhood as system involved young women. Sisters Rising: To develop the leadership of young women to lead our campaigns and research, or to lead in other sectors, we run a 12 week 20 hour a week internship program for 15-20 girls and women in San Francisco each year. This is not traditional employment training: we explore skills and goals along with organizing techniques and critical pedagogy. Each cohort conducts a community service project. Research: In 2016 we launched a five year youth-developed, youth-led research project to find out where young system involved women who are being pushed out of metropolitan areas by gentrification and economic crisis are going and what they need. The purpose of this research is not only to inform our own work but also to inform the work of justice and service agencies who serve these young women. Ultimately we want to contribute knowledge to the conversation about young system involved women that comes directly from the women themselves. Local Campaign: In San Francisco we are working on a campaign for the rights of justice involved youth. In the City, young people who are involved in the juvenile justice system are being sent to out of home placements, often across the country where they are separated from their families, friends, and support network. When they are released into their own communities, these young people are often monitored electronically and kept on probation for extensive periods of time. Our young people have the right to live freely and thrive in their own communities and to do so without being criminalized and hyper-supervised. We have a coalition that includes community agencies, law firms, and the Public Defender’s office building with young people and their families to change these conditions. Statewide Campaign: On July 14th at the Greenlining Institute YWFC hosted Sister Warriors, the kick-off to that launched the statewide Young Women’s Freedom Coalition. At this convening young system involved women began to draft a bill of rights platform to inform the goals of the campaign as we move forward. The work continues as we build membership, host regional meetings, and organize our sisters throughout the state to win policy reform and procedure change. Mentorship: So many amazing women have come through our programs. They have gone on to do many things. Among our former participants we have leaders of organizations, teachers, artists, entrepreneurs, healthcare workers, a president of a foundation, government workers, Ivy League graduates, and many other women forging the path ahead. These women have a commitment to the young people we work with today, and work with them one on one and in groups, connecting them with resources and networks and demystifying college and work.