All children and youth deserve a fair chance.
At the Center for Children & Youth Justice (CCYJ), we’re changing the way young people experience the child welfare and juvenile justice systems—for the better. By listening to young people and working with partners across Washington State, we’re helping to redesign our child welfare and juvenile justice systems to meet children and youth’s unique needs.
CCYJ operates nearly a dozen programs that together address a wide array of issues critical to the wellbeing of children in our state. All of our programs focus on achieving better outcomes for children and families by facilitating collaboration among system stakeholders and others, providing training and technical assistance (TTA), and advocating for solutions that are data- driven and youth-centered. Wherever they work within Washington’s child-serving agencies, and whatever they do, the people charged with supporting our state’s most vulnerable children want to be more effective individually, at the organizational level, or both. CCYJ technical assistance, a targeted process offering organization level support to address a development need or problem, and CCYJ training, help service providers realize this aspiration.
Join us November 7th & 8th, 2024 at Central Washington University
Becca Conference 2024 will be our 21st annual professional learning opportunity for those serving young people in Washington State.
Experts representing education, justice, and community from across the region will provide new information, training, and development to professional and community members who support young people in their pursuit of successful post-secondary pathways, careers, and civic engagement.
Pictured above: the CCYJ Training, Technical Assistance, and Capacity Building team along with leaders of the four organizations selected to be subrecipients of the federal award. From left to right: Giannina Ferrara, CCYJ; Afsaneh Haddadian, CCYJ; Nicholas Oakley, CCYJ, David Heppard, The Black Rose Collective; Shantel Patu, Urban Family; De’Vonte’ Parson, Pro Se Potential; Blaze Vincent, Freedom Project; and Rachel Sottile, CCYJ.
September 25, 2024 — CCYJ is launching a new phase of our community violence intervention (CVI) work, announcing four community partners as future subrecipients of a US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (OJP) capacity building grant: The Black Rose Collective, Freedom Project, ProSe Potential, and Urban Family.
Since 2022, CCYJ has been a recipient of $6 million in CVIPI funding and received an investment last Fall from OJP as an intermediary organization to help deliver federal resources to grassroots groups on the frontlines of violence intervention in King County. The capacity building grant and a prior CVIPI grant awarded in 2022 represent an enhancement of the group and gang violence intervention work that CCYJ has led since 2011.
Being recognized as an intermediary allows CCYJ to continue providing the capacity building support and training and technical assistance that is central to our mission, while holding space for these vital organizations to continue building and strengthening a community of CVI service providers that coordinate, collaborate, and sustain success.
Community-based organizations dedicated to reducing community violence often have deep roots in this field and in our communities, and their efforts to end cycles of violence are too often gained through lived experience. Until recently, much of this crucial work has gone on with little to no funding, and almost always denied the recognition that their contributions merit. However, this event proves that King County community violence practitioners are finally embarking upon a long-overdue period of growth, not only in outreach and intervention but also in organizational infrastructure.
CCYJ announced the subawards at an event commemorating the two-year anniversary of the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI), a landmark federal grant program, which has delivered unprecedented support for lifesaving community violence intervention strategies nationwide. Since the program’s start, jurisdictions across the country have been awarded nearly $200 million in funding to carry out this critical work.
“We were honored to be surrounded and recognized by the Acting Assistant Attorney General Brent Cohen, Senior Policy Advisor Eduardo Bocanegra, and so many other visionaries from the US Department of Justice and honored to amplify the work of one of our partners, Urban Family, who opened their ‘home’ to serve as the event venue.”
– Rachel Sottile, President & CEO
Thank you for your investment in creating better lives for young people at the 2024 Norm Maleng Advocate for Youth Award Breakfast, honoring David Zapolsky.
Rachel Sottile, CCYJ President & CEO and David Zapolsky, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy & General Counsel
CCYJ CEO Sharing about Expanding Role with US Department of Justice & Community Violence Intervention
Early Childhood Court Participants Sharing their Experience
2024 Breakfast Chair, Beth McCaw
The 2023 Results are In!
Check out CCYJ’s Impact Report, bringing to life the ways in which your investment takes our work where it is needed most.
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