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The following article was written by Fania E. Davis, Founding Director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY). It previously appeared in The Huffington Post as part eight of a series from the Rosenberg Foundation on race and criminal justice. It is reprinted here with permission.

Below you'll find a selection of the latest grants, jobs, webinars and events posted to our Opportunity Board. Please share the Reclaiming Futures Opportunity Board with your colleagues in the juvenile justice, adolescent substance use and teen mental health areas. There is no cost to browse or to post!

According to research conducted by The World Prison Brief, the United States has the highest prison population of any developed country in the world. The tendency to incarcerate, rather than rehabilitate, has taken its toll on our country’s most vulnerable youth. Due to increased public awareness around this issue, communities nationwide are exploring and implementing alternatives to incarceration -- as well as actively seeking to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Restorative Justice is one of the alternatives to the standard juvenile justice approach.

This story was originally published in YouthToday.org. It is authored by Alexa Eggleston, a senior program officer, domestic programs at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. 

In the first two years of our work to advance new approaches to prevent and reduce substance use among youth and young adults, a key finding we often share surprises most people: Young people actually think health care practitioners should talk to them about alcohol and drugs.

Unfortunately, most health care providers do not screen their adolescent patients for substance use as part of routine clinical care.  And no, we aren’t talking about the “Just Say No” approach of the ‘80s and ‘90s, but a new approach based in the research literature that frames substance use as a health issue.

Just as health care practitioners counsel young people about other health matters — like the importance of eating right, exercise and safe sex — there is a new movement to apply these same strategies to discuss the negative impact that alcohol and drugs can have on their health, relationships and other things that matter to them.

Below you'll find a selection of the latest grants, jobs, webinars and events posted to our Opportunity Board. Please share the Reclaiming Futures Opportunity Board with your colleagues in the juvenile justice, adolescent substance use and teen mental health areas. We encourage you to browse and to post!

Every week Reclaiming Futures rounds up the latest news on juvenile justice reform, adolescent substance use treatment, and teen mental health. 

Girls Incarcerated Longer for Less Serious Offenses, Texas Study Shows (Juvenile Justice Information Exchange)
"The Influence of Gender and Traumatic Experiences on Length of Time Served in Juvenile Justice Settings," a new study from The University of Texas in Austin, finds that girls in the Texas juvenile justice system serve longer sentences than boys do, and for less serious offences. In the Texas study, girls were also more likely than boys to have experienced trauma and mental health issues prior to incarceration.

Reclaiming Futures is committed to the equitable treatment of troubled youth—nurturing each of them on a path toward health and prosperity, rather than incarceration. To do this, we must be able to identify and end the patterns of discrimination and victimization at play in our schools and our juvenile justice systems.

Below you'll find a selection of the latest grants, jobs, webinars and events posted to our Opportunity Board. Please share the Reclaiming Futures Opportunity Board with your colleagues in the juvenile justice, adolescent substance use and teen mental health areas. We encourage you to browse and to post!

Every week Reclaiming Futures rounds up the latest news on juvenile justice reform, adolescent substance use treatment, and teen mental health. 

New ‘Ban the Box’ Bill Would Improve Access to Federal Jobs for Youth With Records (Juvenile Justice Information Exchange)
The new Fair Chance To Compete for Jobs Act would help youth with criminal histories gain employment by prohibiting employers from asking about criminal history until a conditional offer of employment is received. The hope is that this will help qualified candidates avoid the stigma of past conviction when seeking out employment. As many as 70 million people with criminal histories may face barriers to employment.