There are many problems plaguing the youth justice system, including faults in the probation system, high levels of recidivism and lack of access to resources for low-income and minority youth. However, one problem that is seldom discussed and has a significant impact on youth is the use of detention centers. The Juvenile Justice Advocates at Howard University are an excellent example of how advocacy can make a difference in the lives of detained youth.

For our final interview for Youth Justice Action Month, Emily Fromke spoke with Iliana Pujols, the policy advisor at the Connecticut Justice Alliance. In this interview, she shares her story going through the youth justice system as a teenager and how she uses her experience to help current youth.

Texas alone cannot address the issues contributing to the violent behaviors of youth landing them in correctional facilities and the recidivism that results when they return to the same social groups and environments where they developed these behaviors. Families, communities and churches all have contributions to make.

Dr. Tracee Perryman, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Center of Hope Family Services in Toledo, Ohio, joins Emily Fromke in a discussion about juvenile justice advocacy, diversion programs in Ohio and hope for the future.

Chattanooga, located in the southeastern corner of Tennessee, made national headlines in late May after a deadly shooting occurred in the city’s downtown riverfront area. The most disturbing detail of this shooting, without a doubt, is that it was a victimization of the city’s youth, by the city’s youth. Six teens were shot and two were sent to the ICU at the hands of their peers. Regrettably, this would not be the last tragedy of the summer: three months later, in mid-August, a sixteen-year-old was shot and killed — again, by one of his peers. Even more regrettably, these shootings find themselves lost within a larger narrative — one which tells a story of a city where gun violence, gang violence, and crime plague its youth. But there is hope, still. The story has yet to end because the city refuses to abandon its youth to this epidemic.

Walking around downtown, in the shadows of the Independent and the Austonian — the two tallest residential skyscrapers west of the Mississippi — and among the Teslas and Porsches that lined the streets, I gawked in wonder at the how these incarnations of vast wealth could exist right beside evidence of great poverty. I watched as groups of homeless people sat unmoving under awnings and in alleys, sleeping or quietly speaking among themselves, while well-dressed couples and families debated where along Congress Avenue to get a nice Sunday brunch.

As local, state, and federal policymakers seek to address the housing crisis now heavily exacerbated by COVID-19, they must reassess the impact of current Housing First policies — including their long-term effectiveness in eradicating homelessness.

Do you know your neighbors? Do you really know them? If you were asked to write down the names of the people who live on every side of you, how many of them would you be able to name? This is the question, posed during a church service, that sparked Mark Ferguson’s journey to get to know his neighbors better and to think beyond ordinary definitions of what it means to love one’s neighbor as oneself.

This article engages the strengths, opportunities, and challenges of cross-cultural religious literacy (CCRL) in the field of human services in the United States, with a focus on faith-based social services organizations. It will examine how religious freedom is an necessity for religious organizations that provide social services.

In part two of Daisy Khan's interview, WISE's founder elaborates on how the organization's formation was an enactment of religious freedom and spiritual motherhood; a spiritual midwifing.

The Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality & Equality (WISE) is a nonprofit faith-based organization founded by Daisy Khan to promote Muslim women’s rights. In this article, Khan reflects on the sacred beliefs that are activated in her vocational and organizational work.

In this article, Amar Peterman argues that religious freedom offers us a vibrant, pluralistic vision where diverse experiences and beliefs not only co-exist, but are respected.

This interview with Imam Talib Shareef, Brother Albert, and Ismail Royer, conducted by Chelsea Langston Bombino, sheds light on the past, present, and future of the distinct African American Muslim faith community, The Nation’s Mosque.

In order to work toward human flourishing and the end of human trafficking, we must focus on deliverance and the ethic of love. This article explores how these topics intersect with religious freedom, and provides steps that individuals can take to enact love in the public square.

This article explores how Jesus’ teachings about blindness relate to religious freedom in America, particularly focusing on the ways religious freedom was shaped by white Christians and continues to benefit them.

In February Minister Kerwin Webb, the author, participated in a webinar “Religious Freedom Reframed: A Conversation with the Next Generation.” This article contains a brief reflection of the webinar followed by a link to the panel discussion.

In this article, Dr. Rivers explores the Black Church’s relationship with religious freedom in the United States.

In this article, Amar Peterman argues that religious freedom offers us a vibrant, pluralistic vision where diverse experiences and beliefs not only co-exist, but are respected.