+ Who is Youth Represent?

Youth Represent ensures that young people affected by the criminal legal system are afforded every opportunity to live lives of dignity, self-fulfillment, and engagement in their communities. Founded in 2006, we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides free and comprehensive legal services to youth in New York. We also advocate for policy reforms that shrink the criminal system and expand opportunities for young people.

+ What does Youth Represent do?

Youth Represent levels the playing field for young people who are being illegally and unfairly discriminated against as they pursue employment, housing, education, and stable family lives. A conviction, an arrest, or even a simple interaction with police can have lasting consequences for young people, threatening the stability they need to thrive. When our legal system creates barriers to success, we use direct legal representation and zealous advocacy to empower youth to leave the stigma of a criminal record behind.

+ What programs or services do we provide?

Youth Represent utilizes a three-pronged approach to achieving true systems change on behalf of youth.

• Through our Direct Services, wevprovide comprehensive, free, direct legal representation, to empower young people to overcome job denials, remain in their homes when they are facing eviction, become a loving presence in the lives of their children through custody or visitation rights, go to college, and avoid incarceration.
• These direct services inform our Policy Reform work, like “Raise the Age” and the “Fair Chance Act”, where we advance a systemic reform agenda to expand opportunities and justice for youth of color while putting the voices of system-involved youth at the center of these campaigns.
• And finally, our Strategic Litigation practice holds corporations accountable to the laws we help pass: to date we have secured $7.54 million in settlement funds that have been disbursed to approximately 21,300 people with criminal legal system experience.

+ Who do we serve?

Youth Represent works with system-involved youth 26 and under, with the average age being 20. Because of historic and institutional racism, our clients are overwhelmingly youth of color: 79% are Black or Latinx. All our clients are low-income with 25% living in subsidized housing and 16% in shelters, residential homes, or supportive housing

+ What makes our legal services unique?

If you are arrested and cannot afford a lawyer, you will be provided one at no cost. However, as soon as your criminal case is over, you no longer have access to a free lawyer. You face a host of collateral consequences from the arrest, including being denied employment, evicted from housing, and excluded from education. Without a free lawyer, young people face these challenges alone. This is where Youth Represent comes in: we provide holistic representation and advocacy to hundreds of youth each year in all of the areas where they encounter legal barriers—and we do so in the communities where our clients live.

+ How do we meet clients?

We are community lawyers. Which means, we bring Know Your Rights workshops and direct reentry legal services to young people at our partner organizations, including job training programs, mental health clinics and shelters, settlement houses, alternatives to incarceration programs, and LGBTQ centers. We travel to community-based partner organizations to meet young people where they are rather than making them travel to our office.

+ Who leads Youth Represent?

Youth Represent is led by a diverse and committed Board of Directors. Our Board is majority BIPOC (specifically majority Black), majority women, and has multiple members with direct criminal system experience. We also have a passionate, dedicated, and diverse staff, who are trained in principals of youth development. Our attorneys are cross trained in all of our areas of practice so that clients can rely on a single attorney to be by their side no matter what legal issue they are facing.

+ Who funds Youth Represent?

Our operating budget is over $1.9 million and growing. We are funded through diverse revenue streams including foundations, corporations, government agencies, attorney-fee awards on strategic litigation work, and donations from individuals. In addition, we have fee-for-service contracts with community partner organizations which generate earned revenue for our work.

+ What is our vision for the future?

We envision a world where young people of color are no longer harmed by the racist criminal legal system. A world where young people have dignity and opportunity, regardless of their criminal charges or history of incarceration, citizenship status, level of education, mental health, or housing situation. We envision a world where youth are at the forefront of the fight for change so that together, we can achieve a brighter and more equitable future for all young people and their communities.

+ How has COVID-19 impacted our work?

When Covid hit, our clients were suddenly faced with impossible scenarios: risk their health and that of their families by going to work in unsafe conditions, or lose their job? Pay their rent or buy groceries as they waited for public benefits to kick in? Take the subway at the height of the pandemic or miss a prenatal appointment? Since the onset of the crisis, Youth Represent has quickly responded to the new needs of our clients: we’ve deepened and diversified our legal expertise, especially in the areas of housing, unemployment and other public benefits, and added a new workers’ rights workshop to our Know Your Rights presentations.

We filed two class action cases against large corporations alleging illegal employment discrimination, which secured direct job offers and financial compensation for more than a thousand individuals wrongly discriminated against. We created an Emergency Client Fund that allows us to quickly get financial support directly to our clients in greatest need. Finally, to connect with and provide greater access to our services during Covid, we developed a hotline where any young person could immediately and directly connect with a member of our legal team. Because of the dedication of our staff and Board, our incredible clients, and our committed supporters, we know that Youth Represent will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever.

+ Tell me about Youth Represent’s Policy work

We are proud to be a lead organization bringing about systemic and meaningful change. Our policy work focuses on divesting from law enforcement and investing in youth and communities. And we have a track record of success. We helped push NY State to close two youth prisons, will fight to ensure investment of that money goes to education, mental health, employment, and other programs and opportunities for youth and families. We were a lead group in the “Raise the Age” campaign, successfully raising the age of adult criminal prosecution. We helped end mandatory court surcharges for young people who were adjudicated as Youthful Offenders, we raised the lower end age of arrest and prosecution so 7 year olds were no longer subject to criminal court, and we won an important victory for young people to get a second chance if they were denied "youthful offender” protection. Going forward, we are launching a major campaign to expand protections for youth charged as adults all the way up to age 25. We are bringing together young people,families, service providers, organizers and advocates to push for legislation that will expand alternatives to incarceration and sealing opportunities for teenagers and young adults.

+ Does my donation to Youth Represent really matter?

Yes! Every donation, from our monthly donors to those who give to our annual campaign or donate professional experience matter. We know every donation, regardless of size, represents the trust, support, and faith you are placing in Youth Represent that we will use your financial support effectively and efficiently to bring about the greatest impact on the lives of young people. We are ranked the highest transparency rating of “Platinum” from Guidestar.