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Capstone Project in Partnership with the
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

This year’s Capstone is a community-led, group-based, mentored service-learning course that is a vital part of SCSJ’s Youth Decriminalization Campaign. Capstone-specific members of Youth Justice Project will take on community-based research that contributes to the larger network of resources used by organizations, academic institutions, and others, in understanding the effects of youth criminalization both in and outside of North Carolina.

Too often, individuals are left out of the discussions that will shape what most affects their families and their communities. The Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) is partnering with a UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health graduate student team to discuss and analyze the “justice” system in North Carolina, as well as community-led preventative programs and alternatives to criminalization that impact youth and their community. This group will partner with community members previously or currently impacted by the juvenile justice system and/or the school-to-prison pipeline, who will act as either co-researchers or research participants. The goal of this project is to amplify the voices of impacted community members to guide future discussions regarding ending youth criminalization in North Carolina.

Over an entire academic year (August-April), this team will work together to produce a set of deliverables (i.e., tangible products) that address youth criminalization and enhance SCSJ’s mission. This Capstone team approach prioritizes community members’ specific needs and opinions and gives participants an opportunity to do social advocacy work on a range of topics. Depending upon the research method selected by the team, participants will have different opportunities to build upon their individual skill sets and work as a cohesive team towards an ultimate goal. We hope you will join our team for this important work!

We invite Durham youth ages 14-27 who are, or have been, impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline to apply for our Youth Steering Committee and Capstone experience, both of which are a part of the Youth Justice Project (YJP) at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ). Capstone-specific members of YJP will take on community-based research that contributes to the larger network of resources used by organizations, academic institutions, and others, in understanding the effects of youth criminalization. They will work with a group of UNC Gillings students and SCSJ members to brainstorm, recruit, and conduct research in a way that respects and reflects the lived experiences of those most impacted.