Community Connections For Youth Inc

Programs: Ccfy's youth development department collaborates with local schools, community, and faith-based organizations to provide strengths-based alternative-to-incarceration and alternative-to-suspension programming for at-risk youth. Ccfy's south bronx community connections initiative provides early diversion programming for court-involved youth through which they are connected to positive youth development activities and group mentoring activities. Ccfy's 4as program features an intensive leadership development curriculum for youth to develop their mentoring skills and prepare them to become "credible messengers" for other youth.

in cities across the united states, ccfy provides expert consultation to system and community stakeholders seeking to implement community capacity building projects for juvenile justice reform. Ccfy's training and technical assistance includes: (1) facilitating partnerships between system and community stakeholders to develop community-based alternatives to incarceration; (2) consulting with juvenile justice agencies to improve family engagement, cultural competence, and positive youth development through partnerships with community organizations; and (3) growing programmatic and organizational capacity of grassroots faith and neighborhood organizations that serve youth in the juvenile justice system.

ccfy strongly believes that family engagement is a critical piece of supporting the diversion of young people away from the juvenile justice system. Ccfy's parent peer support program provides parents of system-involved youth with peer coaches to guide them through their child's involvement in the court system. Ccfy's family strengthening program engages parents and their young people in monthly support groups, ongoing parenting workshops, advocacy training, and family strengthening sessions.

ccfy supports other grassroots organizations through fiscal sponsorship arrangements, allowing promising start-up organizations to provide alternatives to incarceration while they undertake the process of incorporating and receiving a 501(c)(3) designation. Currently, ccfy sponsors four start-up organizations that provide programming including youth leadership development, media production, and community engagement activities.