Mission

The Center for Children & Youth Justice (CCYJ) operates nearly a dozen programs that together address a wide array of issues critical to the wellbeing of children in our state. These range from our Early Childhood Courts, which focus on improving outcomes for families with babies and toddlers in dependency systems, and Girls Court, the state’s first gender-responsive court program, in Kitsap County, to the Becca Task Force, a statewide collaboration to keep kids in school, eQuality, which is creating safer and more affirming systems of care for LGBTQ+ youth, and Project Respect, a program working to build and sustain a coordinated, statewide victim/survivor-centered response to commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). All of our programs focus on achieving better outcomes for children and families by facilitating collaboration among system stakeholders and others, providing training and technical assistance (TTA), and advocating for solutions that are data-driven and youth-centered. The past eleven months, following the disruption brought on by COVID-19, have been a period of consolidation and growth for CCYJ. This has positioned us to have an unprecedented level of impact in the coming months and years.