About

HISTORY OF SAVE THE KIDS

Save the Kids (STK) emerged in the summer of 2009 out of Outdoor Empowerment (OE), a nonprofit established in 2005. Save the Kids National was established in August 2011.

Save the Kids is a nonprofit 501 c 3 national organization located in Utah.

In 2009, four African-American youth (Jason, Ali, Jarih, and Amound) in Hillbrook Juvenile Detention Facility chose “Save the Kids” and its mission, while participating in a group discussion about the need for an organization to keep them from being trapped in the juvenile justice system. They needed, as one kid stated, “to be saved instead of thrown away as trash.” That statement speaks volumes.

STK does not claim to have all the answers, nor are we outsiders coming in to “save” anyone. We are individuals who have and had family members incarcerated in youth detention facilities and/or adult prisons and jails. We are made up of formerly incarcerated youth and adults, politicians, lobbyists, policymakers, judges, lawyers, detention staff and administration, youth advocates, teachers, religious leaders, and mentors.

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FOCUS

Save the Kids focuses on supporting all youth, however the four groups most often caught in or targeted by the school to prison pipeline and juvenile justice system are (1) Youth of Color, (2) Youth with Disabilities, (3) LGBTTQQAI Youth, and (4) Youth who are economically disadvantaged.

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MISSION STATEMENT

Save the Kids (STK) is a fully-volunteer national grass-roots organization dedicated to alternatives to and the end of incarceration of all youth and the school to prison pipeline.

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VALUES

1. Environmental Justice
2. Transformative Justice
3. Hip Hop Culture
4. Lowrider Culture

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 TEN POINT PRINCIPLES

1. We believe that all youth need support, love, and skills in order to achieve their goals.
2. We believe that all youth are amazing and wonderful, no matter the actions they have committed.
3. We make a clear distinction between actions and kids; actions can be bad, but not kids.
4. We are committed to promoting food justice for healthy sustainable living with youth because they are our future and if we do not help them, we will not have one.
5. We believe in respecting all gender, ability, race, economic status, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, health, age, or nationality.
6. As a Hip Hop activist organization, we work towards both social justice and the end of all forms of oppression, specifically the school-to-prison pipeline.
7. As an organization based on transformative justice principles, we strive to promote and analyze alternatives to incarceration, such as community-based programs, rather than institutionalization.
8. We believe in peace and nonviolence in resolving and transforming all conflicts.
9. We reject the stigma created by labeling and are inclusive in all of our activities.
10. We promote interdependence, that everyone in the community should work together in making a peaceful world and not to exclude anyone.  STK will work with everyone and anyone in order to achieve that goal.

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