We begin and end with the whole young woman — her need for political and legal education, as well as therapy and other health and wellness services; her need for employment, as well as an opportunity to resume her education; her need for a safe place to live, as well as peers who understand her crises and with whom she can build positive relations and true sisterhood.

We respond immediately to all of the needs of a young woman — emotional, economic, legal and social. We help her recognize and rely on her considerable strengths — resiliency, creativity, intelligence and social networks. We recognize and validate her life experience. We provide her with private services so she can stabilize and grow stronger, as well as public opportunities to exercise her newfound strengths.

Taking a holistic approach, we work with the young woman to develop legal and courtroom self-advocacy plans, with help from her parents or guardians, other community-based agencies, the faith-based community, the Public Defender’s office and, in some cases, the District Attorney’s office and the presiding judge. Our aim is always to develop a comprehensive alternative to incarceration that best serves the needs of the young woman.

While more and more research is proving that this holistic approach is the most effective way to work with at-risk young women and girls, we initially took this approach because it was what we recognized that we needed for ourselves.

Our proven methodology integrates theoretical and practical approaches from the fields of social services, youth development, youth advocacy and organizing, leadership development, personal wellness, spiritual and somatic growth and skills development including economic self-sufficiency.

We utilize popular education methods in ALL areas of our methodology, allowing young women to use their own experiences as the basis of their learning. We have discovered that when we focus on one area at the expense of others, we are much less successful. For instance: When we have focused solely on skills development, we have found that the health and safety issues young women face have prevented them from attending and making use of our trainings. Similarly, when we have focused our energy on critical thinking and lost sight of the need to mobilize the larger community around the issues we are addressing, young women are frustrated by not having ways to share what they have learned.

Our best practices integrate all aspects of our methodology into our programs, bringing each element to young women in the manner most appropriate to their particular situations and working with young women in juvenile hall, on the streets and on-site.