ABOUT US
Save the Kids (STK) began in the Summer of 2009 out of Outdoor Empowerment (OE) a nonprofit established in 2005.
In 2009, a number of kids at Hillbrook Youth Detention Center chose to rename Outdoor Empowerment to “Save The Kids” and its mission, while they were participating in a group discussion about a need for an organization to keep them from being trapped in the system. They needed, as one kid stated, “to be saved instead of thrown away as trash.” That statement speaks volumes.
This organization does not claim to have all the answers, or are outsiders coming in to “save” anyone, but we are individuals who have and had members of our family incarcerated in youth detention facilities and adult prisons and jails. We are made up of formerly incarcerated youth and adults, judges, lawyers, probation officers, detention staff and administration, youth advocates, educators, and mentors.
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MISSION
Save the Kids is a movement that advocates for alternatives to incarceration that are peace oriented, collaborative, and transformative life skills and knowledge based through programs for youth and the community.
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BELIEF
We believe that all youth need support, love, and skills in order to achieve their goals. We believe that all youth are amazing and wonderful no matter the actions they have committed. We make a clear distinction between actions and kids; actions can be bad, but not kids. We are committed to helping youth because they are our future and if we do not help them, we will not have one. STK believes in respecting all no matter what their gender, ability, race, economic status, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, or nationality. We hope one day all youth will be placed in community-based programs rather than incarcerated or institutionalized. As a transformative justice based organization we strive to promote alternatives to incarceration and methods of transformation of incarceration.
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STRUCTURE
Save the Kids provides four programs: (1) Advocacy; (2) Policy & Research; (3) Re-Entry & Mentoring; and (4) Education.
(1) Advocacy Program joins community members in organizing activism to ending community and institutional violence in the form of candle light vigils, rallies, and Take Back the Night walks.
(2) Policy & Research Program focuses on critically examining and analyzing the current juvenile justice system for the purpose of providing transformative suggestions and alternatives to incarcerating youth.
(3) Re-Entry & Mentoring Program is dedicated to providing supportive services for youth that are being released from incarceration such as detention facilities in New York.
(4) Education Program is geared around two educational streams that foster life skills, which are experiential and expressive. The educational streams service youth inside detention and in the community, along with adult workshops, which train adults to be facilitators of educational programs we provide such as Outdoor Empowerment (OE) and Help Increase the Peace (HIPP) . (1) Experiential education includes workshops and trainings that include group-building, collaborative activities on topics such as conflict management, anger management, peace, and community building. (2) Expressive education includes activities allowing space and place for kids’ voices that include poetry and writing, dance, music, spoken word, and arts and crafts.
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