Youth Writing for Justice

The Linda Howard Weissman Youth Justice Program ensures that young people, typically aged 12 to 18, who have been caught up in the juvenile justice system have the opportunity to better understand themselves and their personal histories as they write and share their stories in weekly workshop series lasting 10-12 weeks. These workshops are rooted in a partnership with Touro Law School’s Public Advocacy Center and the Concepts Court diversion program for youth established by Acting NYS Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho.

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Established in 2023, Herstory’s youth justice program brings together law student interns and justice-involved youth to write alongside each other with the dual goal of creating more empathy and awareness in future attorneys and of guiding young people on a path of self-reflection and self-discovery so they can feel empowered to effectively advocate for themselves. Herstory’s program is an option Judge Camacho presents to court-involved youth as part of their probation and/or an alternative to incarceration. 

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Through memoir writing, young participants find their way to a place where they can unlock and peer into the door opening onto their past, where they can bravely confront the events in their lives that led them onto troubled paths. Participating law interns write their own short memoirs and, along with Herstory facilitators, help to guide the young writers toward finding their own powerful voice, their own ability to advocate for themselves in a system and a world that works to silence their voices and strip them of their dignity and power. Together they examine the impact of current policies and practices on youth in the criminal legal system, the effects of mass incarceration on families and communities, police practices, and racial justice.