Ubuntu Village Nola

The Parent Navigator program was developed to assist parents and caregivers in navigating the juvenile justice process and ensuring that guidelines by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention are being adhered to by the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court system. Ubuntu Village NOLA, with the help of this grant, supported a core group of parents' leaders to develop an analysis of the juvenile justice system. Ubuntu sees parents as equal partners in all steps of the process to educate, improve practice, and bring about social change through advocacy and policy. We expanded our Parent Leaders Educate for Action (PLEA) program and have connected and worked with 130 parents/caregivers to date

Before the Debt Free Justice (DFJ) National campaign launch, The "Village" a community of impacted families and other interested members passionate about our vision, worked in partnership with a coalition of advocates to amplify the message about the Debt Free Justice campaign in Louisiana. Ubuntu Village NOLA (Ubuntu) partnered with the Policy Advocacy Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law (PAC), Stand for Children, and the Louisiana Center for Children & Rights (LCCR) to advance the goals of a statewide campaign to abolish juvenile fees, costs, and taxes throughout Louisiana. We helped lawmakers and system stakeholders understand the magnitude of the harms juvenile fees impose on families and the extent to which juvenile fees undermine youth reentry and rehabilitation. We persuaded lawmakers and system stakeholders that fee repeal is ultimately in the best interest of the juvenile system and the Nation's most vulnerable families. Highlighting the economic pain inflicted on families by juvenile fees is an effective counter and vital to maintaining bipartisan support for fee abolition.

Louisiana law authorizes courts to charge specific administrative fees to youth and their families in the juvenile justice system, including fees for probation supervision, public defenders, medical examinations, and care and treatment. The campaign's most significant success or outcome was passing bill HB216 and turning it into law, which we are most proud of. Maintaining connections with families impacted by juvenile fees, centering their voices and lived experiences, and educating the public through outreach were core to the campaign.