Nurturing Transformation for Girls In and Beyond Juvenile Halls

Support for foster and systems-impacted youth

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

The youth the Coalition serves have faced prolonged exposure to interpersonal and community violence, trauma, poverty, and systemic racial, ethnic, and gender bias—all factors that contribute to juvenile justice involvement. Girls, in particular, often experience domestic violence, abuse, trauma, poverty, and racial, ethnic and gender bias. The system fails to prepare youth for adulthood, leaving them at higher risk for low educational attainment, unemployment, incarceration, health disparities, poverty, and homelessness. Black and Latinx youth—the Coalition’s primary population served—remain overrepresented, making up 92% of girls in L.A. County juvenile halls. With the closure of all-girls facilities like Scott Juvenile Hall, gender-responsive support is lacking in co-ed halls and camps, deepening the need for targeted, affirming services.

This grant will support the Coalition’s expansion into L.A. County juvenile halls to deliver our newly approved 10-week Restorative Justice & Empowerment Course, developed specifically for systems-impacted girls. Held inside juvenile facilities, this course centers on trauma healing, leadership, self-worth, and positive peer connection—meeting a critical gap, as no other organizations have access to provide this level of comprehensive, gender-responsive programming within the halls and camps.
In addition to these targeted, in-facility workshops, the Coalition’s signature Positive Youth Development (PYD) through mobile case management model provides critical continuity of care through intensive aftercare support. Our team meets girls where they are—both physically and emotionally—providing them with personalized probation and court navigation, employment pathways and work-readiness training, targeted academic interventions and education stabilization, housing stability assistance, mental health care support, peer mentorship, ecotherapy, and positive social development. This grant will fund the continuation and expansion of both in-custody workshops and post-release wraparound supports, ensuring more girls benefit from consistent, long-term care as they transition back into their communities and build stable, self-sufficient futures.

Our work will transform Los Angeles County by reducing recidivism and increasing stability for systems-impacted girls through trauma-informed, gender-responsive support.
Over the one-year grant period, we will deliver PYD through intensive mobile case management for up to 50 girls, providing over 650+ meaningful touchpoints, and ongoing workshops to 25–40 justice-impacted girls in juvenile halls on building trust, community, leadership, self-care and life skills. This funding will help sustain and expand our newly launched 10-week Restorative Justice & Empowerment Course inside juvenile facilities.
Long-term, we aim to scale this model to all juvenile halls and camps in L.A. County, ensuring every justice-impacted girl receives personalized, consistent support both inside and after release. With this continuity of care, we empower girls to achieve long-term stability, economic independence, and healing—transforming futures and communities.