YOUTH LAW CENTER
Advocating for children and youth as if they are our own.
Learn how to support this organization
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
General Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Advocacy
Youth Law Center (YLC) is a public interest law firm that has worked for four decades to transform foster care and juvenile justice systems across the nation so every child and youth can thrive. YLC’s advocacy aims to ensure children and youth are not only protected from harm and dangerous conditions in systems, but also receive the support, opportunities and love they need to grow up healthy and happy through child-focused, research informed advocacy strategies, including litigation, policy reform, media advocacy, collaborative system-change projects, training and advice, and public education.
Quality Parenting Inititiave
Driven by the belief that every child deserves quality parenting, the Youth Law Center developed and implemented the Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) over 10 years ago. QPI is an approach to strengthening foster care, refocusing on excellent parenting for all children in the child welfare system.
QPI is creating a movement to transform foster care through a network of families, youth, agency leaders, judicial leaders, agency staff, and community organizations committed to developing and sharing results-based solutions, advocating for and implementing policy and practice changes, and changing the culture of child welfare to focus on the QPI goal of excellent parenting for every child and youth in care. QPI has now grown to over 80 jurisdictions in 10 states.
Pathways to Higher Education
Through YLC’s Pathways to Higher Education work, we are expanding the number of postsecondary education opportunities available to young people who are currently or have been involved in the juvenile justice system in California. This innovative work re-imagines higher education as an important habilitation anchor to bring youth back to their communities and offer the opportunities they need to succeed. Youth want to continue their education and they have the resilience and potential to succeed and lead. We can create the practices, policies and resources so every youth can fulfill their dreams.
Healthy Transitions to Adulthood
YLC works to ensure that youth leaving either the child welfare or the juvenile justice system have needed supports including housing, financial supports, parenting, and mental health and medical care. Transition aged youth in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems face the prospect of losing financial support and health insurance at age 18 before they have the ability to provide for themselves. YLC works to extend foster care to age 21 and ensure youth remain on Medicaid through their 26th birthday. Staff advocate for increased access to education, improved transition planning policy and practice, and address barriers to normal adolescent developmental experiences, and ensure equal access to benefits for youth in both systems.
Where we work
Awards
Janet Reno Women's Leadership Award 2020
Center for Juvenile Justice Reform
External reviews
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
YOUTH LAW CENTER
Board of directorsas of 11/03/2023
Ms. Joy Singleton
Attorney at Law
Term: 2023 - 2025
Howard F. Fine
Attorney at Law
Matthew R. Gemello
Orrick
Heidi Foreman
Foreman Consulting, Inc.
Mehrzad Khajenoori
Retired
Chrystie Chung
William S. Koski
Stanford Law School
Katee Peek
Nicholas Lupisella
Merck & Co.
Mark Soler
Retired
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 10/31/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.