Youth Law Center

Mission Statement

For over 45 years, the Youth Law Center has worked to transform juvenile justice and foster care systems across the nation so every child and youth can thrive. Our advocacy focuses on three goals for children and youth in foster care and juvenile justice: 1. End practices that harm children. 2. Ensure excellent parenting for every child, every day. 3. Guarantee that every child has the opportunity to thrive in adulthood. YLC employs multiple strategies, including litigation; movement lawyering; legislation and policy reform; training and technical assistance for youth, families, advocates and public systems; leadership and public education; and model program development. As a public interest law firm, YLC has fought for laws and policies to reduce incarceration; and ensure children removed from their homes are held in humane conditions, treated fairly, and receive the education, health care, family connection, and transition services they need. While YLC works nationally, we are based in San Francisco, and have a special focus on advocacy for children and youth in California. YLC is committed to leadership by those who are directly impacted by our advocacy efforts. Our Executive Director is a woman of color and both she and our Board President bring a deep commitment to leadership by those who are directly impacted by our advocacy efforts, based on both of their lived experience in foster care and juvenile justice systems.

Values:

The Youth Law Center advocates for justice, love and opportunity for system impacted children and youth utilizing advocacy driven by the following values: Knowledge of the law, developmental research and the facts on the ground; Integrity to do what is best for our clients regardless of financial or social consequences to ourselves, and to be deserving of the trust of our supporters and clients; Commitment to pursue solutions urgently and relentlessly; and Involvement of the children, youth and families who are most impacted.
RESPECT for the individuality of children and families and their
potential to thrive, and respect for the efforts of those who strive
to serve them.

DEI Statement:

YLC is committed to ending the criminalization, institutionalization, and dehumanization of Black and Brown children and to advocacy that ensures that the young people and families most affected have the power, opportunities, and resources to create a different future. We stand ready to work in community with those who are similarly envisioning a more just world where Black, Indigenous, Latino, and all children are safe, loved, and most importantly, free to dream and exist.
YLC’s advocacy approach is grounded in the belief that those most directly impacted by systems are best positioned to transform them. As advocates, we seek out the spaces and places where we can hear from those young people and their families and offer them the support they need to lift up the vision they have for change and build power. We believe that change comes from deeply listening to young people and the organizations that support them, from helping them to translate their ideas into practice and policy change, and from working in partnership to move forward advocacy to transform systems.
As an organization, YLC is committed to actively working towards the internal and external practices that ensure we live our diversity, equity, and inclusion values. YLC aims to support and empower a team that reflects the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and skills needed to make our advocacy successful, with particular emphasis on the value of lived experience of system-involvement.

Programs/Services:

For the past 45 years, Youth Law Center has used the law as a tool to win important victories protecting and expanding the rights of children and youth in foster care and juvenile justice systems, including:
– Ending incarceration of children and youth in adult jails;
– Stopping illegal and inhumane practices in juvenile justice and foster care facilities;
– Securing access to legally required education, health, mental health, and transition services and connections to family;
– Improving the quality of legal representation.

At the same time, Youth Law Center works with young people, families, and those closest to them to build positive child- and youth-focused systems based on essential needs and developmental science:
– Positive and supportive relationships with loving adults;
– Opportunities to have typical childhood experiences;
– High quality K-12 and post-secondary education access;
– Stable and secure housing;
– Economic supports;
– Physical and mental health care;
– Ability to create their own futures, and impact the futures of others in similar situations.

Ideal Candidate:

An optimal candidate for the YLC board would be a talented legal professional who is passionate about our mission and strategies for change, willing to work with the ED to build board capacity and be a thought partner, and willing to work with staff to support fundraising/resource development by one (or more) of the following strategies: cultivating individual, corporate, or institutional giving and/or supporting events
(currently one annually). We are particularly interested in candidates who have a connection to the diverse communities our children and youth come from. Expertise in specific areas of the law is welcomed such as: employment, corporate governance, and others.

Why you should consider joining this board:

Are you looking for an opportunity to use your talents and energy to partner with one of the most highly
regarded legal advocacy organizations in the country to transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of the
most vulnerable children and youth across our country who must grow up in foster care and juvenile justice
systems? Serving on YLC’s board is an extraordinary opportunity to join a team of exceptional leaders that,
while small, has an enormous impact on national and local policy, practice and culture reform that ensures
that every child in our community has the opportunity to receive the love, opportunities, and safety they
deserve.

Fundraising/Financial Commitment:

$2,500 Give or Get Expectation

Additional Information:

None Provided

To Apply:

Year Founded:

1978

Service Region(s):

Central Coasts Area, Central Valley Area, Los Angeles Area, National, Sacramento and Northern California, San Diego and Imperial Valley, San Francisco Area, Statewide

Service Area(s):

Access to Justice, Children & Youth, Civil Rights, Consumer Protection and Economic Justice, Disability Rights, Education, Health Care Access, Housing, Impact Litigation/Advocacy, LGBTQ+ Rights, Racial Justice, Reentry Work

Annual Revenue:

$5 million – $10 million

Employees:

26-50

Board Members:

6-10

Length of Board Term:

Board members serve three year terms

Board Meeting Type:

Hybrid (both virtual and in-person)

Service Per Month Expected:

Less than 5 hours

Board Meetings Per Year:

4 board meetings a year