FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contacts:
Victoria Gomez, tori@youngwomenfree.org, (213)257-4621
Thabile Makue, thabile@youngwomenfree.org, 510-980-1446
San Francisco, CA — Young Women’s Freedom Center (YWFC) is a finalist in the Google.org Impact Challenge and stands to win a million-dollar grant to end the incarceration of young women and girls, and gender-expansive youth in the Bay Area.
“Community safety does not hinge on criminalization and incarceration. When we invest in building the leadership and self-determination of young people, we enable our communities to thrive.” says Desiree Victor, Site Director of YWFC Santa Clara County (SCC) Site.
Since 2019, YWFC has worked with young women and girls and gender-expansive youth in SCC to build safety, sisterhood & siblinghood, economic opportunities, and healing. “Through partnerships with community organizations and system decision-makers, we have worked to ensure that young people are lifted up and not locked up. Our programs have become real alternatives to incarceration.”
During 2021, the long-term youth facility, James Ranch in Morgan Hill, has had 0 girls for several months, and the short-term Juvenile Hall has had 0-2 girls at a time – reduction of 87% in detention. “This is a direct consequence of investing in young people. Young women in our programs are also 79 – 85% less likely to be incarcerated again,” says Julia Arroyo, YWFC Managing Director.
“Winning this grant will help us continue to do this work and ensure that it reaches as far as possible.”
#VoteYWFC – HERE!
Voting is open until November 14, 2021 on g.co/BayAreaChallenge.
ABOUT YOUNG WOMEN’S FREEDOM CENTER
The mission of the Young Women’s Freedom Center, originally called Young Women’s Development Center, is to empower and inspire young women who have been involved with the juvenile justice system and/or the street economy to create positive change in their lives and communities. Since 1993, the organization has begun their transformative work by meeting young women where they are: in juvenile halls, jails, and on the streets and linking youth development and youth organizing strategies with the mission to provide gender-specific, peer-based opportunities for high-risk, low- and no-income young women. For more information visit youngwomenfree.org.