YWCA Madison At-Risk Youth Initiative

Through the Byrne Congressionally Mandated Awards program, the Office of Justice Programs helps communities improve the capacity of local justice systems and supports training and technical assistance programs and other efforts that strategically target local needs. This program is authorized to organizations identified in the Conference Report to accompany the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010.

This project will specifically target the growing at-risk youth community in Madison, Wisconsin. The YWCA Madison will utilize this funding to expand its vision of building a Community of Opportunity, by connecting at-risk youth and their families to employment, education, healthcare, childcare, transportation, thus diverting them from the pipeline to incarceration. The YWCA Madison propose a three-pronged approach to increase opportunities and work towards the elimination of the racial disparity in our community: 1. Prevention programming for at-risk youth: provide a series of neighborhood and school-based programs targeting at-risk youth that focuses on building self sufficiency skills. 2. Racial and Restorative Justice: provide YWCA dialogue programs for both criminal justice institutions in our community and at-risk youth with the goal of increasing cultural competency and decreasing the racial disparity in the incarceration rate. 3. Employment and Training: Provide employment and training, designed to meet the needs of the local labor market, to youth with an end goal of economic self sufficiency, which will increase strength in the community. Youth will participate in evidence-based programs. 100% of Girls, Inc. sites will offer one research-based Girls, Inc. curricula at each site every school semester. In addition, the Restorative Justice Curriculum that is offered will include evidence-based practices from the OJJDP Balanced and Restorative Justice Model. NCA/NCF