About
What is the Youth Rights & Safety Hub?
The hub is a collaborative space that provides members with communications resources and media training while we work to change and shape the public narrative. We are a communications resource focused on issues related to youth justice, youth rights, and youth safety in Maryland. We provide support to the youth justice and youth serving community, educate decision makers and the general public about crime-related data, and guide efforts to change the media narrative about young people in our state.
Who is involved in the Hub?
Any organization interested in changing the narrative about youth may join. The Hub is facilitated by Advance Maryland, guided by an Advisory Committee, and structured to support and be responsive to the needs of participating organizations.
What does the Hub offer members?
Information sharing, including monthly meetings and newsletters
Communications resources
By-request assistance to organizations with their individual communications needs
Media training and connections to speaking opportunities
Data debriefs for Hub members and elected officials
Rapid response to harmful narratives and attacks
Participation, support, and guidance in long-term narrative change about justice-involved youth in Maryland
Join the Cause
For too long, the community safety narrative has been dominated by well-financed, highly organized, and politically-motivated institutions that focus on reacting to crime, and prioritize punishment over crime prevention and rehabilitation. The Youth Rights and Safety Hub helps to correct this imbalance by providing practical communications support to grassroots and community-based voices calling for holistic solutions. Real community safety includes providing children with food security, housing stability, high quality public schools, and protecting them from neglect, abuse, and violence, as well as from unconstitutional policing and the dangers associated with unnecessary contact with the adult and juvenile legal systems. In a balanced youth safety ecosystem, legal systems are but one of many partners working together to keep kids safe and respect their rights.