YOUTH JUSTICE PROJECT
Capstone Project
in Partnership with the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
In 2022, SCSJ sponsored a community-led, group-based, mentored service-learning Capstone course as a vital part of the Youth Decriminalization Campaign. Capstone participants conducted community-based research that contributed 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.
The Youth Justice Project (YJP) is a youth-led group of Durham Public School (DPS) students of color who are committed to ending the school-to prison pipeline and achieving educational justice.
Invest In Our Children, Invest In Our Youth: Ending Youth Criminalization in North Carolina
Invest In Our Children, Invest In Our Youth: Ending Youth Criminalization in North Carolina highlights the harms of, and alternatives to, vilifying and incarcerating our young ones. Throughout America’s history, Black, Latine, and Indigenous youth have been traumatized by racial violence and dehumanized by a society that often views their presence as a threat to public safety. These same young people are at constant risk of state-sanctioned violence from discriminatory law enforcement, which criminalizes age-appropriate behaviors and suppresses their freedom of movement.
This report is a collaborative effort intended to support grassroots organizations organizing against the criminalization of students of color, and advocating for greater investments in alternatives to criminalization.
#LiberateToEducate
The Youth Justice Project's #LiberateToEducate platform wants Durham Public Schools to end the school-to-prison pipeline by removing police, ending exclusionary discipline, liberating the school environment, implementing culturally relevant curriculum, and establishing mental health spaces and safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ youth at every school.
The over-policed school atmosphere can initiate, rather than alleviate, misbehavior by increasing anxiety, alienating students, creating a sense of mistrust between peers and forming adversarial relationships with school officials.
We want a liberated school environment where students from marginalized communities have the freedom to determine their educational experience while feeling safe, loved, and supported.