FacebookInstagramXYouTubeEmail

A Look at Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System and Need for Equity in Diversion Programs

The following reflects Kentucky Youth Advocates’ presentation to the Commission on Race & Access to Opportunity and Juvenile Justice Oversight Council on June 20, 2023 – watch the testimony and view the presentation.  Over the last several years, the Kentucky General Assembly, Administrative Office of the Courts and their Court Designated Workers program, and critical stakeholders have made tremendous progress in reforming the juvenile justice system and the way we respond to kids who get [...]

By |2023-06-28T14:46:39-04:00June 28th, 2023|Blog, Race Equity, Youth Justice|
Read More

Intern Insights: Understanding the Impacts of Homelessness for Foster Youth

By Carlie Reeves, Intern at Kentucky Youth Advocates Homelessness, while experienced by many, disproportionately affects those with a foster care experience.  It has been found that in Kentucky, 1 in 3 young adults who have foster care experience will face homelessness/housing instability at some point. So, out of the 1,132 youth aged 16-20 that were in foster care in 2021, 444 of them will eventually face housing instability. Foster care’s purpose is to reunify families or establish [...]

By |2023-06-21T14:05:39-04:00June 21st, 2023|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education|
Read More

Guest Blog: Keeping Families Connected Is Important: Guide to Jail Visiting in KY Shows How to Take Action

By Judith Jennings Find the Keeping Families Connected: A Guide to Keeping Families Connected at www.LFJA502.org.  High-quality jail visiting programs are urgently needed to reduce harms to children and families and humanize local criminal legal systems. Overcrowding in county jails in Kentucky and across the nation is well known. Yet, as families with incarcerated loved ones know all too well, incarceration negatively impacts parents, children, and communities, and staying connected is often challenging.  Kentucky has [...]

By |2023-06-20T17:51:38-04:00June 20th, 2023|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Justice, Race Equity|
Read More

Kentucky Ranks 40th in Child Well-Being While Inaccessible, Unaffordable Child Care Deeply Impacts Families and Economy

Contact: Mara Powell mpowell@kyyouth.org 502-895-8167 X122 Kentucky Ranks 40th in Child Well-Being While Inaccessible, Unaffordable Child Care Deeply Impacts Families and Economy Data Show Child Care Challenges Caused Over 1 in 9 Kentucky Parents to Miss, Quit, or Scale Back Work, the Annie E. Casey Foundation Finds LOUISVILLE, KY — Kentucky ranks 40th in child well-being, according to the 2023 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, a 50-state report of recent household data developed by the Annie [...]

By |2023-06-13T16:52:15-04:00June 14th, 2023|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, News Room, Race Equity|
Read More

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, and Fuel Stops

Greetings, from the road! The Sowing Resilience: A Bloom Kentucky Listening Tour is about halfway complete. We are making 19 stops in total across every region in Kentucky. We have powerful partners in every region that have been integral to the success of this Listening Tour series.  Much like the motto used by the fabled Dillon Panthers in the hit TV show Friday Night Lights, our Kentucky Youth Advocates team members are focused and operating [...]

By |2023-06-16T15:18:59-04:00June 13th, 2023|Blog, Bloom Kentucky, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Race Equity, Youth Justice|
Read More

REFORM Louisville: Finding Power in My Voice

By Leondrea Johnson About a year ago, one of the staff people at YouthBuild Louisville told us he had an opportunity for a couple of us to participate in. When we met the first time with Kentucky Youth Advocates, the work they talked about pulled me in. They asked us about what changes we wanted to see in our community and talked about things that some of us had experienced - like school suspensions [...]

By |2024-08-20T16:31:56-04:00June 9th, 2023|Blog, Justice, Race Equity, Youth Justice|
Read More

Call for Photos: Let’s See Your Cute Kids!

Kentucky Youth Advocates is looking for photos of Kentucky kids to include in the 2023 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book and other Kentucky Youth Advocates publications. We know you all proudly share pictures of your kids and grandkids by hanging them on your refrigerator and posting them on social media. Here’s your chance to promote those cute kids through Kentucky Youth Advocates’ materials. We need your photos by September 1st so please start sending them [...]

By |2023-06-13T15:33:26-04:00June 8th, 2023|Blog, Kids Count|
Read More

How YOU Can Help Assess Kentucky’s Oral Health Landscape

June is National Oral Health Month, an optimal time to recognize the importance of oral health as a key part of overall health and well-being. Kentucky Youth advocates is joining the Kentucky Oral Health Coalition (KOHC) in celebrating throughout the month of June and highlighting opportunities to get involved. KOHC is a project of Kentucky Youth Advocates and is a statewide group of concerned citizens, oral health providers, parents, and many others working to improve [...]

By |2023-06-07T12:31:10-04:00June 7th, 2023|Blog, Health|
Read More

Kentucky’s Application Open for Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership Program

The entire workforce is struggling to find the high-quality employees that it needs to stabilize business. In the past, employers could offer a competitive salary and a benefit package with health insurance and that would be enough to draw in the employees they needed.  However, that is no longer the case. Eighty-three percent of working families with children under the age of five are struggling to pay for child care. If the adults in the [...]

By |2023-06-02T14:55:06-04:00May 31st, 2023|Blog, Economic Security, Education|
Read More

New Efforts to Boost WIC Participation in Kentucky

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women’s, Infant, and Children (WIC) provides vital support for the food and nutrition security of pregnant women, new moms, babies, and young children by providing food assistance via an EBT card, nutrition education, and breastfeeding support. While this support is critical for new parents and young children, the WIC program is out of date and does not reach everyone who is eligible. Kinship caregivers and Kentucky’s Latinx population face [...]

By |2023-05-25T21:43:43-04:00May 25th, 2023|Blog, Economic Security, Health, Race Equity|
Read More
Go to Top