Justice Ambassadors Youth Council (JAYC) empowers youth to directly shape policies and community interventions that are intended to support the healthy development of communities.
The Justice Ambassadors Youth Council launched its 8th cohort this week. The Justice Ambassador Youth Council (JAYC) is a 12-week social action and life skills building educational seminar that brings together government officials and 18-25 year-olds – many of whom are legal system impacted or gang involved – and come from New York City’s most under-served neighborhoods. The JAYC approach is rooted in policy-by-proximity – a model of incorporating the voices and lived experiences of people, especially those who are living through public crises, into policy development conversations with government officials centered around system reform and community change.
Before the official launch, JAYC hosted pre-programming for the youth so they could get to know their peers in a less formal environment. These meetings covered topics like Urie Brondenbrenner’s ecological systems model, where the cohort was able to, through their own personal experiences, create a dialogue of how rampant systemic issues in their community have shaped their perception of the world. The next meeting covered the "Pair of Aces Tree Model" which explains the way "roots" – systematic adverse community factors– lead to the growth of the "limbs" or the results of these factors at the individual level. The final pre-programming meeting began the process of identifying the policy issues the youth participants are interested in addressing.
The launch on October 7 brought the youth together with key government officials at the Forum at Columbia. JAYC Program Coordinator Jason Bostic presented on what personal and social identity is, utilizing the Circle of Life diagram from Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model, which visualizes how environments and systems, on both macro and micro levels, impact a person's identity and experience. This presentation encourages the cohort to start with addressing the problems they are the most familiar with, no matter how big of an issue it may be. The youth and government officials broke into groups to discuss their ideas further and will continue to do so over the coming weeks.
