As a sponsor of their recent Healing and Hope event, NCCD helped the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth celebrate its progress toward ending extreme prison sentences, including life without parole, for youthful offenders. This annual event brings together individuals and families impacted by these extreme sentences, as well as professionals and policy makers working toward change. Several individuals were honored at this year’s event, including Vincent Boyd and John Pace, who were sentenced to life in prison and achieved release through sentencing reviews based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. Alabama. Also honored was former NFL player Anquan Boldin, cofounder of the Players Coalition, who uses his fame to bring attention to the need for continuing progress on the issue of extreme sentencing for juveniles and criminal justice reform in general. Deirdre O’Connor, NCCD associate director for strategic initiatives, attended the Washington, DC, event on behalf of NCCD. She and Boldin are pictured with Boyd (far left in photo) and Pace (far right in photo). Learn more about Healing and Hope here.

  

Helping Young Men of Color Achieve Their Dreams

It was a star-studded affair: President Obama, John Legend, Ryan Coogler, Stephen Curry, Michael B. Jordan. But the focus of last month’s MBK Rising! event in Oakland was the hundreds of boys and young men of color for whom President Obama created the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) initiative five years ago. The initiative calls on all Americans to work on behalf of boys and young men of color. MBK Rising! brought together MBK Network members, elected officials, cross-sector leaders, young men of color, and organizations working to help young men of color achieve their dreams. NCCD CEO Kathy Park attended as well. Her photo (left) shows a town hall meeting with President Obama and NBA player Curry, who shared their advice with the young men in attendance.

Throughout the two-day event, attendees were asked to share how they live the words “I am my brother’s keeper” via the conference app or from the stage. Park wrote: “I’m driven by the core values of living in service to others in support of a common purpose and of justice. These two things combined engender a sense of personal responsibility to use the resources available to me in ways that advance opportunity and promote equity where institutional and systemic bias and racism have left entire communities behind.” Learn more about the event here.

Dr. Angie Wolf, NCCD’s chief program officer, welcomes California Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal to move the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to Health and Human Services (HHS). “We love the fact that the governor is touting system reform on the justice side of things, particularly as it relates to kids,” she said in a recent interview on The Jefferson Exchange, broadcast on Jefferson Public Radio (which covers southern Oregon and Northern California).

However, she remains cautiously optimistic: “NCCD has been out here in California for over 40 years and we’ve seen this before. We’ve seen language around … implementing a more reform-minded approach and a different lens. I don't think it was extraordinarily successful. We’re hopeful that this movement to HHS also brings a very strong trauma-informed lens, an understanding of the communities [the youth are] coming from, and strong connections for youth returning home. It’s going to take more than changing the name and changing the location of the building in order to make lasting reform and give these young people better opportunities to succeed,” she said. Listen to the full 22-minute interview here.

  

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