March 2023 Care & Closure Monthly Newsletter

A Message from Our Care & Closure Project Team

Welcome to the March 2023 newsletter for Care & Closure: a plan for youth healing, accountability, and community safety. This is King County’s effort to expand community-based alternatives to secure youth detention and close the youth detention center – centered on youth well-being and care, accountability, and safety. Each month, we share project updates and upcoming opportunities to be involved in the effort. 

Welcome Jawara McDuffie, Community Partner Co-Lead

DCHS is excited to welcome Jawara McDuffie to the Care & Closure effort! Jawara comes to the work with over 20 years experience working with youth, families, and communities impacted by the legal system in Washington, North Carolina, and Georgia. He spent more than half of those years providing support in therapeutic foster care, behavior support, mentorship, career exploration, and more. Jawara will support building community partnerships, engaging impacted youth and communities, and strengthening the community infrastructure needed to expand community-based alternatives to secure youth detention and close the youth detention center. Would you like to connect with Jawara? You can email him here.

Listening to Impacted Youth, Families, and Communities

As we shared in our February email, DCHS is thankful for our partnerships with eight community organizations to lift up youth and family voice about the community-based supports and accountability needed to support young people. These organizations have been connecting with impacted youth, families, and community members on critical questions related to this project since January 2023. The organizations will share findings from their engagement with the Advisory Committee in April. More information to come on this soon!

Join the Advisory Committee Meetings

Mark your calendar for our next Advisory Committee this Monday, March 27 from 4 pm to 5:30 pm. The meeting will be held virtually and is open to the public. You can find more information about the meeting here and previous meetings here. We are also seeking additional young people with experience in the juvenile legal system, parents and family members, and community members who have been harmed by young people to participate in the Advisory Committee and upcoming subcommittees. If you are interested or know of someone who might be interested, please let us know!

What We’re Learning

Centering the perspectives of those who have been harmed is critical to transform the criminal legal system and ensure community safety. Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice recently released findings from a national survey about the views of crime survivors on safety and justice. Among their findings, they found that crime survivors are twice as likely to prefer investing in crime prevention, crisis assistance, and strong communities over increasing arrests, strict punishment, and incarceration. You can read the 2022 survey here or check out this short video here about how the traditional criminal legal system fails to support crime survivors and provide accountability.

Help Others Get Connected

Please share this monthly newsletter to anyone you think might be interested in learning about this effort. Folks can sign up to get these monthly newsletters and project updates here. Folks can also learn more about the project on the website here.

Do you have any questions or want to get involved in this project? Connect with us!