The Community Leaders Roundtable of Seattle

Choose freedom: Choose freedom is our program for youth at risk of incarceration and gun violence engagement. Service accomplishments for Choose freedom in 2023 included hiring a full-time case manager to serve graduates of Choose freedom programming, ensuring all program participants have access to long-term mentorship and resource connection to avoid future gun violence engagement and reduce recidivism. We delivered programming at 2 local youth detention facilities, echo glen and king county juvenile detention center. Approximately 190 individuals were served through Choose freedom in 2023.

School diversion: service accomplishments for sbd in 2023 included partnership with seattle school district and increasing the number participating schools in highline school district. There was an increase in the number of school partners and activities to increase engagement and youth self-referrals, as well as promoting our program offering of comprehensive support for youth at risk of suspension and expulsion to school staff and administrators. A significant long-term goal for this program was the launch of programming in seattle school dist and building upon that relationship for a second year of programming. Most youth participating in our post-program survey reported that they have learned skills to be successful in school including change in mindset, focusing on goals, time management, and focusing with clear priorities.

Ta expansion: teaching and advancement (ta) is a team that launched in 2021 to train and support other interested communities nationwide to offer similar services as Choose 180 offers in king county. The most significant service accomplishment in 2023 was partnering with walmart to offer trainings to 5 cities nationally in school-based restorative practices and completing the research for cities to partner with across the country. Ta also began a federal research and development contract to partner with a snohomish county juvenile legal system reform organization -- participatory justice to conduct asset mapping and community listening sessions with the goal of launching juvenile court diversion in snohomish county. The objective and long-term goals of ta are to offer Choose 180 insights to different cities to collaborative formation of diversion programs throughout different geographic areas; with the purpose of increasing diversion efforts to support young people as alternative to incarceration.

Aftercare/coaching: service accomplishments for aftercare in 2023 included a 12% increase in rental assistance and other basic needs to participants and their families over 2022 to $102,235. Our aftercare team continued to offer long-term mentorship and resource connections to all participants in need of support, while expanding their reach to being available inside our participating schools.

Other program accomplishments:advocacy: the advocacy service accomplishments for 2023 include the completion of our 3rd year of the youth and young adult advocacy program, a paid training program for young people impacted by the criminal legal system. 2023 objectives included overseeing the development of a youth steering committee to center youth voices in advocacy priorities. Community partnerships from those engagement endeavors have flourished, with the advocacy team being the voice of Choose 180, advocating for no new youth jail and better conditions for incarcerated youth. Some objectives of the advocacy program for youth include: participation in coalition building with other local organizations, participant exposure to legislative processes including youth advocacy day at the state capitol. Counseling: our counseling team consists of two counselor. One specializes in talk therapy, while the other specializes in art therapy. Together the counselors offer 3 types of services: 1-on-1 talk therapy, expressive art therapy, and group therapy cohorts, all free to participants. Objective and long-term goals for the counseling program in 2023 included being able to serve youth in schools and in 2023 our counseling team began serving youth in two different school districts. By adding a 2nd therapist in 2022, our counseling was able to provide over 460 hours of individual therapy in 2023. Restorative community pathways rcp: rcp is a diversion alternative that was launched in 2021 by a collective of youth service organizations to offer youth community care in lieu of criminalization. Service accomplishments for rcp in 2023 included a 3rd year of programmatic completion. While facing political backlash, rcp has endured and is expanded from 6 service providers to 7 in 2023. Rcp is a community-centered process endorsed by the king county prosecuting attorney's office, king county executives' office and king county council. Objective and long-term goals for rcp in 2023 included the successful diverting over 400 young people from the court system across the consortium. 91% of participants report being satisfied with services, 90% of youth regularly engaged in services, 90% of youth had their basic needs met with rcp support and 80% reported increased skills such as relationship building. Approximately 75 youth were served by Choose 180 rcp staff in 2023. Young adult diversion: 2023 was our 8th year offering young adult court diversion to youth ages 18-24 in partnership with the city of seattle prosecuting attorney's office. Service accomplishments this year included 100 diversion workshops were completed with individuals who would otherwise face a court case, and connecting participants after workshop completion with additional support through individual case management and counseling. Objective and long-term goals this year included expanding our definition of "comprehensive care" for program participants, who can engage in a variety of free, and even paid program opportunities focused on crisis deescalation, goal setting, violence prevention, mental health support, and basic needs. 92% of young adult court diversion participants do not reengage with the court system within a year of engagement of the program.summer program: service accomplishments for the 2023 include a 4th year of a paid summer internship program offered to current or former program participants. The summer program consists of a 7-week paid summer program training youth in business development that ended with a shark-tank style presentation with bipoc local business owners serving as judges. Other accomplishments of the summer program in 2023 include nearly doubling the number of youth served from eight the previous summer, to 13 in 2023. Objective and long-term goals of the summer internship program in 2023 included participant engagement with various bipoc owned businesses in the seattle area, strengthening relationships for students to pitch business ideas and receive entrepreneurial and financial support.