Saving Our Youth emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to issues facing youth in the United States. Its primary goal is to educate the total community and to coordinate community resources to address the problem through prevention, intervention, and diversion services. We do this in an effort to reduce violence, gangs, truancy, and juvenile incarceration. We want to increase college enrollment, school attendance, and high school graduation. Saving Our Youth houses the programs Who Knows Gangs, True Gentlemen, & Committed 2 Life to support our goals and mission.
Why do we exist?
· 80% of Black children in special education were male
· 5,000 Black boys were expelled from pre-school
· Black were 13% of the population, but comprised 35% of drug arrests, 55% of
drug convictions, 74% of drug prisoner
· Blacks are 13% of the population, but 50% of those waiting on death row
· Blacks are 13% of the population, but 67% of the juveniles in adult courts and 77% of the
juveniles in adult prisons
· 1 out of every 13 Black babies were born out of wedlock in 1965 but 7 out of 10 today
· Blacks represent 84% of crack cocaine convictions
· 2 of every 3 Black males are projected to be involved in the penal system by 2020.
*US statistical abstract 2000
In Tennessee alone:
· In 2007 59% of juveniles in the state's secure detention centers were African American
· 80% of juveniles transferred to adult court in Tennessee in 2007 were African American
· African American youth under 18 in Tennessee make up only 21% of the population