Nick Jasso is a FLY alumni, UCLA student, and currently works for FLY as a Youth Voice Policy Fellow. As a Policy Fellow he plays a key role in helping FLY define and codify our efforts to center youth voices within our systems change work. The topic of how school resource officers contribute to the school to prison pipeline is the focus of Episode 9 of the PolicyWise podcast featuring Nick.
FLY believes that youth are the experts of their own experience, and amplifying their voices is part of FLY’s DNA. FLY itself was founded upon the ideas and feedback provided by youth involved in the juvenile justice system hoping to prevent other young people from having the same fate. Twenty years later, we continue to honor this tradition by engaging and collaborating with young people as true partners in our work.
At FLY, we love sharing personal success stories to illustrate the determination and hard work of our youth. This is the story of Noemi, who participated in our Law and Reentry Programs and overcame many challenges to prove that she can build a bright future for herself.
FLY’s Board explains that how we treat youth in FLY is what we want for youth throughout society: love and compassion, belonging, equity, fairness, and opportunity.
As our programs operate against the backdrop of a global health pandemic, our work to pursue justice for youth is front and center. Right now, FLY is evolving from a “service to some” organization into the “justice for all” organization we were always intended to be.
Due to COVID-19, all of FLY’s volunteer training had to be conducted virtually. Our staff approached this new endeavor with both excitement and nervousness. They were stepping into the unknown, but with great communication and preparation, the SCC Law Program was able to recruit 15 new volunteers for this year’s Fall semester! The training itself was a huge success, and our staff were able to tackle each item they set out to teach our volunteers.
“Nonprofit leadership transitions, especially those that involve a founder stepping down, can be fraught with uncertainty. Throw in a global pandemic, economic crisis, and racial injustice, and the challenge might seem near impossible. Yet for Ali Knight, the new CEO of Fresh Lifelines for Youth, it was the perfect time for him and the organization to take a bold step.” The Bridgespan Group is a highly respected global nonprofit committed to strengthening other mission-driven organizations and philanthropists through management and consulting. They recently began a series of articles about FLY’s recent CEO transition. In this first part of the series,
An article by FLY alumni Miracle Te’o has been featured on the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. JJIE is a widely respected resource for any type of information in the world of juvenile justice, and to have her work on their site is an incredible honor. In her article, Miracle discusses the accountability of probation officers, providing some great advice and demonstrating just how ready our youth are to be teachers to adults in the system who hope to do better by them. At FLY, we believe that youth are the experts regarding their own experiences, which is why youth voice
At FLY, it has always been a special honor and privilege to support our youth as they strive toward their educational goals. Despite the exceptional circumstances of this school year, the FLY class of 2020 had 43 high school graduates!
On July 1, 2020, Ali Knight was appointed the new President and CEO of FLY after our Founder and CEO of 20 years, Christa Gannon, moved into a formal Founder role. He explains the focus of this new era at FLY: using our energy and resources, and lifting up the voices of our youth, to disrupt the pipeline to prison and help further bend the arc of the universe toward justice.
© 2015 Fresh Lifelines for Youth
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