Access Youth

Access Youth increases educational equity for at-risk Black youth annually with individualized restorative justice-based programming including leadership and life skills, mediation, and empowerment – all built within their community on a foundation of trust. Access Youth is on the frontlines at eight of DC’s most underfunded schools and plays a critical role in the lives of Black students at risk of dropping out. Our education system is failing, and students of color are consistently pushed out of school and into the criminal justice system, a path that typically begins with truancy and/or suspension. Access Youth disrupts this inequitable cycle with a four-prong restorative model of support: relationship-building, opportunities and incentives, planning, goal setting, and accountability. Through an equity-focused and trauma-informed lens, our evidence-based programs––Truancy Prevention and Restorative Justice in Schools––replace punitive exclusionary discipline with proactive development of community caring, coping mechanisms, and conflict-resolution skills that help students develop empathy and an understanding of their behavior. Our programs result in fewer/less racially disparate suspensions, and improved school climate, teacher–student relationships, and academic achievement for students yearly. Access Youth plays an integral role in our schools, creating a community of resilience by building trust between students, families, and our full-time on-site Program Managers who share the lived experience of their students. At our partner schools, students receive daily support and learn skills not taught in classrooms: socio-emotional skills, peer mediation, leadership training, and life skills. One student at a time, Access Youth increases equity in schools by empowering students with skills to break long-standing cycles of conflict, poverty, and trauma and become the role models they desperately need.