All Youth Are Sacred Fellowship Comes Together in Sacramento

In June, our policy team proudly supported the first in-person event of the All Youth Are Sacred (AYAS) Community Safety Through Youth Power fellowship in Sacramento. This fellowship is the result of almost two years of strategic planning and organizing to combat misinformation in the media about young people and crime trends.

Did you know youth crime trends are at historic lows, and have been on the decline for decades? Despite this, probation budgets continue to rise, even as less youth are referred to their supervision. Data, both statewide and down to the county level, has shown a drop in youth crime trends so drastic, our Senior Researcher Mike Males, PhD, has called it a youth revolution no one is talking about. These statistics directly challenge the narratives we see across the state about young people and their impact on community safety. Despite the data, popular media seems to focus on misleading headlines and cherry-picked stories surrounding the current state of youth crime trends. Youth become easy scapegoats and are often framed as reckless and constantly at risk.

In the past few years, a coalition of organizations across the state have come together to examine their local crime rates and highlight efforts to support young people in their regions. In the last year, we have held regional events from Southern California to the Central Valley and the Bay Area. These public education efforts have led to a statewide youth justice fellowship that is co-facilitated and co-created by young people throughout CA. This fellowship is housed and run through the California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice (CAYCJ), of which CJCJ is a member.

The goals of the statewide fellowship are to:

• Build youth leadership and skills necessary to advance their own narrative through media.
• Change the narrative around the criminalization of youth and create an active approach to combat fear mongering media tactics.
• Create and maintain a culture that uplifts the shared vision and values of AYAS.
  
  

CJCJ is proud to be an anchor org in the statewide efforts supporting this fellowship. Young people are who will ultimately pay the price for these false narratives and over-investment in punitive systems. They are also who we should be proactively investing time, mentorship, and resources, as they are our best hope for our shared futures. This fellowship is a vehicle through which young people will learn valuable skills surrounding data, communications, and organizing, all while building community and leadership skills.

During our time in Sacramento, AYAS fellows spent their morning strategizing around their collective efforts for the next six months. Hailing from across the state and ranging from 15 – 22 years in age, this was the first time our fellows were able to meet in person. We gathered at the Sierra Health Foundation, and were grateful to have a part of our session on the beautiful land the foundation rests upon, we thank them for the space. A highlight of the day was the time spent envisioning what community safety and an investment in youth’s potential and sacredness could look like, and how each fellow would contribute toward that goal. After lunch, we headed to the Capitol to introduce the fellows to the legislative environment and help them locate their elected representatives’ offices. Thank you to the legislative staffers from Senator Caroline Menjivar’s, Senator Kevin McCarthy’s, and Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula’s offices for meeting with us. Special thanks to our amazing leads, Sandy Valencia and Bria Woodland, for your guidance and dedication to the curriculum and events. Our fellows are so lucky to have you as their guides during this first cohort.

This fellowship is far from over! Our fellows are currently creating social media content utilizing the skills they are learning, while they continue to work on individual and collective projects to be shared amongst the community. You can follow the AYAS social media page on Instagram, and learn more about the fellowship itself here. Stay tuned, we will continue to share updates from our powerful AYAS fellows!