OBJECTIVE A: To support our new path, TCJE will build on prior organizing successes by organically quadrupling headcounts of our local networks of youth advocates, families/friends of incarcerated people, and formerly incarcerated people living in our service area. We will do this within the next two years. 

OBJECTIVE B: We will update all records in our existing constituent/advocacy databases within the coming year. 

OBJECTIVE C: We will enjoin our expanded networks to grow our social media outreach at the grassroots by redistributing posts and articles we will create outlining our new path and advancing policies we support. We will do this starting in 2025 and will assess progress after the 2027 legislative session. These steps will build our capacity to elevate the voices of Black/Brown people seeking to influence policymakers locally and in Austin. 

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT: Under Objective A above, TCJE is sustaining our organizing effort among youth eager to influence state policymakers in Austin on matters of youth incarceration. 

In 2025 we will convene youth networks and support them in updating our policy strategies, particularly the “Finish the Five” campaign. We’re regrouping in response to 2023 legislation that indicated retrenchment to a “get tough, lock ‘em up” outlook among the majority of state lawmakers. HB 1227 authorized construction of new youth prisons and referral of youth to adult prisons, despite our efforts opposing that approach and the state’s shameful history of abuse and neglect of youth in custody. 

We look forward to engaging youth to plan new policy advocacy efforts centering youth and leveraging our local presence.