LCYC contracted with Majors Leadership Group to review our internal policies with an anti-racist approach, and to develop a conflict resolution policy using a restorative, grace-based conflict resolution process. This work will continue into 2025.

LCYC began working with Stefani Coverson of Jamii Pae Consulting to further LCYC’s strategic plan goal to increase organization-wide training on anti-racism.  Stefani’s work specifically aims to build our intercultural competence by completing the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to review our individual and group’s underlying development orientation. 

LCYC raised salaries across the organization. Civil legal aid as a sector is undercompensated in relation to other legal professions, which creates a barrier to further diversifying a historically white profession. Higher salaries support the recruitment and retention of a diverse team that is reflective of the demographics and experiences of the young people we serve. Per our 2021 report, “Invisible & Inaccessible: Young People’s Perceptions of Civil Legal Aid”, one of the ways youth recommended to make legal aid more accessible was hiring more diverse attorneys.

Each of LCYC’s internal functional teams created and committed to achieving 1-2 anti-racism goals in 2024. This includes program teams and administrative teams, holding our entire organization accountable to advancing anti-racism in our day-to-day work. Goals were shared out internally for transparency across teams.

LCYC supervisors participated in a training series titled “Equitable Practices for Supervisors”, hosted by Reverb DEI in partnership with Jennifer M. Werdell Consulting and JustLead.

LCYC invested in supporting leadership opportunities for staff leaders of color. Some training opportunities staff engaged in included, One Justice’s Executive Fellowship, Self-Care for Black Folks Learning Series, and Compass Point’s Supervision for BIPOC Leaders: Relationships and Structures that Help Us Thrive.

Additionally, all new staff joining LCYC in 2023 participated in a “Fostering Equity” self-paced online program with JustRoots Consulting.

LCYC’s 2023 internal professional reviews were updated to include a section for staff to identify anti-racism trainings they participated in and share how they are applying those experiences to their work. This process update provides greater accountability for each staff member as we collectively work to become an anti-racist organization.

LCYC participated in updating the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC) Child Welfare Guidebook to include a model that focuses on values-based leadership and commitment to anti-racism, section C1.

LCYC expanded programmatic partnerships with by-and-for service providers, CHOOSE 180 and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP). These partnerships allow LCYC to reach youth of color who are disproportionately impacted by legal issues and other systems involvement.

LCYC approved a 2024-2026 strategic plan, with renewed prioritization to incorporate our commitment to anti-racism into every decision and action.

Erin Lovell, Executive Director participated in 8-week program called Beyond Good, which provided anti-racism training specifically for white legal services executive directors. Beyond good was led by Just Roots Consulting, in collaboration with JustLead.

We published Tableau data dashboards so that we can easily disaggregate program data by racial and LGBTQIA+ identities and ensure that our services and systemic advocacy are effectively reaching, centering, and advancing the legal rights and opportunities of young people harmed by racism and other forms of oppression.

We continued to work with JustLead to advance our work to become an anti-racist organization, including an anonymous staff survey to review results of a survey conducted with staff to gauge where we were in terms of progress and what opportunities lie ahead in our journey to become an anti-racist organization. The next areas of focus for LCYC are on retention and leadership development for staff of color and revisiting our policies for responding to internal grievances with a restorative justice lens.

We created a small group focused on helping to create a baseline, milestones, and means of measuring progress for LCYC as we move to becoming an anti-racist organization.

All staff attended trainings led by JustLead, Choose 180, Chief Seattle Club and QLaw Foundation of Washington.

Our hiring process and board recruitment process (candidate outreach, job descriptions, interviews, decision making, and employment contracts) were updated to include an intentional anti-racist lens.

We committed to building a more diverse bar by supporting paid internships, with intentional outreach to students of color and LGBTQIA+ students.

Our Director of Policy and Systemic Advocacy collaborated with staff to form pairs with expertise in specific program areas to inform policy decisions. At least one member of the consultation team is BIPOC and/or identifies as LGBTQIA+ if the issue would impact young people who identify as LGBTQIA+. This is to ensure that the perspectives of those who are most disproportionately impacted by systemic oppression is reflected in the decision-making for our approach to advocacy.

Alex Narvaez, Attorney, participated received a fellowship with Shriver Center’s Racial Justice Institute, which allowed individuals from legal aid and public interest organizations from across the country to work together to examine their practices and dismantle barriers to opportunity. Alex also participated on the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality Task Force on Race and the Criminal Justice System. Read the report and recommendations to address race in Washington’s Juvenile Legal System here.

We completed an anonymous, internal audit with JustLead, to develop an organizational baseline regarding staff personal experiences, commitment and equitable organizational culture, diversity in the workforce, partnership and accountability with communities of color, and the application of anti-racism within LCYC.

Following a training and comprehensive recommendations from JustLead, LCYC created internal work group focused on embedding anti-racism in our organizational principles, strategic planning work, internal decision-making, and hiring policies.