OJJDP Youth Justice Project

OJJDP's State and Community Development Awards program was established to provide grants and cooperative agreements to organizations that OJJDP has selected for funds in prior years. This program has been authorized by an Act appropriating funds for the Department of Justice.

The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) will work with OJJDP to find effective ways to confront youth violence, overrepresentation of minority youth in juvenile and criminal justice system, racial profiling and the complex challenges that make young people of color so vulnerable in many communities. The project aims to: (1) develop and distribute materials that put contemporary issues shaping racial profiling, over-incarceration and youth violence in an historical context; (2) examine the causes of disproportionate minority contact in the juvenile justice system through roundtable discussions, community research and data review and the development of local historic narratives; (3) examine the role of legal representation of juveniles to ensure fairness and the perception of fairness surrounding the legal needs of youth accused of misconduct and (4) work with OJJDP on roundtable discussions in cities participating in the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention and engage both youth and community leaders in conversations about strategies for reducing youth violence and improving community health. NCA/NCF