Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

In 1993, the San Francisco organization that would become the Young Women’s Freedom Center made history by becoming one of the first nonprofits in the country run and led entirely by young women. Its mission was to create a support system and community to assist women and girls who had been living on the street and had experienced incarceration, foster care, poverty and trauma. In the decades since, it has developed a model for training and developing peer leaders with lived experience in the juvenile justice and foster care systems, creating a place of healing for young women and a force for community organizing and empowerment. The Center has helped lead the fight to end juvenile incarceration in California and has developed a set of powerful young leaders—including Rep. Lateefah Simon, the U.S. congresswoman who now represents Oakland and Berkeley and is a former executive director of the Center. The program has had remarkable success. For example, young people who complete YWFC programs are up to 85 per