Our History

The CFSY utilizes a multipronged approach to reform including serving as a hub and convener, engaging key stakeholders, educating target audiences, advocating for reforms, and bolstering legal strategies to ban life-without-parole sentences for children. We believe we are stronger when we are in partnership learning from one another.

Theory of Change

Extreme sentencing for youth will only end when decision makers and those who influence them are convinced; to that end, we see state- and federal-level advocacy, litigation, coalition-building, and public education as integral, ultimately leading to a U.S. Supreme Court challenge resulting in a categorical ban of all life-without-parole sentences for children. The CFSY centers the experiences and perspectives of individuals directly impacted by the injustices we work to resolve – chief among them individuals incarcerated as children for serious crimes, victims of crimes committed by children, and the families of both.