Partners & Funders
Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable organization, dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. In pursuit of this goal, the Foundation makes grants that help states, cities. and neighborhoods fashion more innovative, cost-effective responses to these needs. CJJ has partnered with the Foundation to implement the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), which was designed to support the Casey Foundation’s vision that all youth involved in the juvenile justice system have opportunities to develop into healthy, productive adults. Drawing on a long history of supporting the Annie E. Casey Foundations’ Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, CJJ is now supporting the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group’s work in youth engagement. CJJ is partnering with Casey to develop a youth advisory council that will inform and strengthen the reform efforts of its Juvenile Justice Strategy Group. We are also supporting the development of a guide for state and local juvenile justice systems to meaningfully partner with young people to enhance reform efforts on both the policy and practice level. This guide will be grounded in principles of positive youth justice and offer tools and resources for sustained youth participation in juvenile justice policy reform efforts.
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) as the professional voice of law enforcement. The IACP addresses cutting edge issues confronting law enforcement through advocacy, programs and research, as well as training and other professional services. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention awarded CJJ and IACP a grant to administer the “Police and Youth Engagement: Supporting the Role of Law Enforcement in Juvenile Justice Reform” program. We will work with IACP to bring together youth and law enforcement officers for in-person and virtual meetings to discuss best practices and approaches to improving police and youth relations. In addition, we will assist in creating a training curriculum on this subject for law enforcement officers.
MacArthur Foundation
The MacArthur Foundation works to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and society. MacArthur is one of the nation’s largest independent foundations. Through the support it provides, the Foundation fosters the development of knowledge, nurtures individual creativity, strengthens institutions, helps improve public policy, and provides information to the public, primarily through support for public interest media. CJJ partners with the Foundation to implement Models for Change, a network of government and court officials, legal advocates, educators, community leaders, and families working together to ensure that kids who make mistakes are held accountable and treated fairly throughout the juvenile justice process. Models for Change provides research-based tools and techniques to make juvenile justice more fair, effective, rational, and developmentally-appropriate and the initiative supports counties and states in reforming the way they treat kids who’ve committed crimes. MacArthur also supports several of CJJ’s projects, including the development, publication, and dissemination of “Childhood on Trial, the Failure of Trying and Sentencing Youth in Adult Court” (2003), and provided support for CJJ to serve as the principal partner and fiscal sponsor of the National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN) since 2005. In addition, the Foundation currently provides support to CJJ to broadly educate about the need to strengthen and improve the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) in its pending reauthorization, including significant contributions to CJJ’s annual national conference, and also to CJJ’s role as a lead convener and co-chair of the “Act 4 Juvenile Justice” initiative.
Melville Charitable Trust
The Melville Charitable Trust is the largest foundation in the U.S. exclusively devoted to preventing and ending homelessness. They invest in proven, lasting, and cost-effective solutions that enable people who have experienced homelessness to reclaim their lives.
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ)
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) is one of the largest and oldest judicial membership organizations in the nation. It serves an estimated 30,000 professionals in the juvenile and family justice system including judges, referees, commissioners, court masters and administrators, social and mental health workers, police, and probation officers. For those involved with juvenile, family, and domestic violence cases, the Council provides the resources, knowledge, and training to improve the lives of families and children seeking justice. The NCJFCJ partners with CJJ in the implementation of various programs and projects, but most notably on our Safety, Opportunity & Success (SOS) Project, helping with the identification and convening of judicial leaders on the deinstitutionalization of status offenders (DSO).
National Network for Youth
The National Network for Youth is a public education and policy advocacy organization dedicated to ending youth homelessness in America. Together, NN4Y and our members envision a future in which all young people have a safe place to call home.
Pew Charitable Trust’s
The Pew Charitable Trust’s Public Safety Performance Project works with states to help them implement data-driven and fiscally sound policies that reduce incarceration rates, save taxpayer dollars, and improve public safety. In recent decades the number of youth and adults behind bars skyrocketed, due in large part to state laws and policies that incarcerated more people for longer periods of time. A growing body of research has proven, however, that community-based programming is more cost-effective, has better outcomes for children, and makes communities safer. Pew works with states to advance and develop more effective policies that are based on this research. CJJ assists Pew in these efforts by helping to educate juvenile justice leaders who are central to enacting state reforms. CJJ also provides Pew with critical information about state trends and practices, as well as contextual information necessary to further Pew’s work.
Raikes Foundation
The Raikes Foundation strives to empower young people through lasting systems change and catalytic philanthropy. Founded in 2002 by Jeff and Tricia Raikes, the Seattle-based foundation partners with organizations to promote learning mindsets and skills in the classroom, prevent and end youth homelessness, and support quality out-of-school time programs in Washington state.
Tow Foundation
The Tow Foundation, established in 1988 by Leonard and Claire Tow, funds projects that offer transformative experiences to individuals and create collaborative ventures in fields where they see opportunities for breakthroughs, reform, and benefits for underserved populations. Investments focus on the support of innovative programs and system reform in the areas of juvenile and criminal justice, groundbreaking medical research, higher education, and cultural institutions.