The New York State Senate on May 21 passed legislation establishing the Youth Justice Innovation Fund, a new initiative aimed at strengthening youth development efforts and reducing youth involvement in the criminal legal system. The fund would allocate $50 million annually to community-based organizations serving young people up to age 25.
The legislation marks a significant move toward fulfilling the goals outlined in New York’s 2018 Raise the Age law, which called for increased investment in alternatives to incarceration and expanded access to youth services. Although the state committed $1.5 billion to support this shift, fewer than a third of those funds have reached the targeted communities. The shortfall has left many youth-serving organizations under-resourced and unable to provide consistent support for vulnerable populations, advocates say.
The Youth Justice Innovation Fund aims to correct this funding gap by redirecting a portion of the existing youth justice appropriation toward grassroots groups that are already embedded within local communities, according to the Legal Aid Society…