Our Mission
Our Mission is to the Shut Down the Cradle-to-Prison™ Pipeline in MA by ensuring that our state’s most vulnerable students receive a stable and quality education through expert holistic, individual, and systemic racially-conscious, student-directed advocacy.
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Our Vision is that every student who is ensnared in the court system, including emerging adults, has an expert team who can provide zealous education advocacy for them.
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Our Focus is on students who are caught in, or put at risk of being caught in, the family regulation system, juvenile courts, and/or the adult courts.
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Our Approach is to leverage the expertise of attorneys and social workers statewide to permanently transform the standard of practice for client and systemic representation in Massachusetts and dramatically improve educational and life outcomes for children, youth, and emerging adults impacted by system involvement.
What We Do
The Youth Advocacy Foundation (YAF) was established in 2001 with the mission of protecting and advancing the legal and human rights of children. For the past 24 years, YAF has remained steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that every child has access to zealous representation, essential community-based services, and a quality education. The young people we represent are students with disabilities. Getting the right education, including learning to read, is how students can escape the cycle of poverty and the school-to-prison pipeline.
A donation to YAF funds the many ways we are ensuring and enhancing the education representation that the EdLaw attorneys provide, including:
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Intake, paralegal, and legal support
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Dedicated social work support for our education clients
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A client support program that provides needed items and services for clients such as food, clothing, supplies, transportation, housing
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YAF V.O.I.C.E.S. – a group for youth and parents with lived experience
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Resources to help attack structural racism in our schools and other institutions
All these initiatives keep kids in school and out of detention. Your support will help YAF deepen and sustain the reach of its mission so that all 25,000 court-involved children and youth in Massachusetts have access to effective education advocacy.