Overview of RA/LASA

LASA

Mission Statement

To promote justice and equality for African-American Youths in the juvenile justice system.

Vision Statement

A juvenile judicial system that does not discriminate against the African-American youths.

Ethical Statement

The organization will be committed to promoting and adhering to the highest ethical statement in the carrying out all its endeavors seeking to promote justice for African-American youths in the juvenile justice system. To achieve this, this agency is committed to:

Dignity and Respect

The organization will aim to respect the rights and dignity of others

Integrity

Seeks to carry out its endeavors with integrity

Accountability

The agency will be accountable in all its dealings to the community for ethical conduct and ensuring compliance with the relevant laws and justice.

Fairness

Act by the rules, being open-minded, and actively be engaged with the stakeholders in the juvenile justice system

Trustworthiness

Being honest in all research work and presentation; and having the courage to do confront the injustices

RA

Funding Proposal

The agency requires resources to fund the following activities seeking to promote equality in the juvenile justice system:

Research; the agency needs to carry out extensive research to establish the instances and incidences of disparity in juvenile justice system to the African-American youths

Advocates fees; the agency requires funds to cater for advocates engaged as defendants for the African-American youth in different case studies.

Workshop; The agency seeks to raise funds to facilitate a workshop for all stakeholders in the juvenile justice system to discuss the underlying issues leading to disparities against the African-American youths.

Human resource: The success of the agency will be largely dependent on the quality of people engaged in its operations. The people engaged will range from advocates, investigators, analysts, researchers, and volunteers.

Community Partnerships

The mission of promoting justice and equality for African-American Youths in the juvenile judicial system cannot be achieved by working in isolation. There is need to look out for partnerships from different community agencies and stakeholders. Partnership with the following stakeholders will be critical to the attainment of the agency’s mission:

Law enforcement agencies; This category of stakeholder is directly involved in the juvenile justice system through arrests, charging, and remanding of the youths in different facilities. The collaboration will seek to sensitize the law enforcement agencies on inequalities and stereotypes affecting the African-American youths.

Probation Officers; The probation officers are critical component in the juvenile justice system as they do a follow-up on the youths sentenced to community service.

Juvenile Policy Institute; This is an organization that carries out research and analysis to identify effective programs and policies and offer training and technical assistance to parties seeking to promote justice reform.

Juvenile Law Center; This is a non-profit law firm with public interest in the application of legal strategies and legislative advocacy to assist the youth in the juvenile justice system. W. Haywood Burns Institute for Juvenile Justice Fairness and Equity; The Burns Institute that operates to reduce the overrepresentation of youth of color in the juvenile justice system