with The Tow Foundation's

Emily Tow Jackson

Can you tell us a little about yourself, your organization, and your grantmaking portfolio?

I am the Executive Director of the Tow Foundation, which is a family foundation that is committed to improving the juvenile justice system in Connecticut.

Over the last seven years, we have been giving almost exclusively to a variety of nonprofit organizations that provide direct services and advocacy for court-involved youth. We have been able to help our grantees take risks that are not always possible with government grants and have been able to demonstrate some really interesting and effective programs that probably would not have been initiated otherwise.

We have also improved programs that are state funded by adding enhancements or length of service. We have gotten heavily involved in policy and system reform through our own advocacy and our support of nonprofits whose primary interest is advocacy work around disadvantaged youth in general and specifically the juvenile justice population.

How did you become involved in YTFG and why?

Diane Sierpina, a senior program officer at The Tow Foundation, attended one of the first YTFG meetings. Our foundation staff really didn't have a lot of peers locally with whom we could interact. We also didn't have the opportunity to network with other foundations looking at these vulnerable populations of youth, so that we could potentially bounce ideas off each other, learn something, and share what we were doing.

Personally, I do see the benefit of the individual work groups; however, as an executive director and trustee, the larger group meetings are more beneficial because of the whole concept of cross-cutting issues for these groups of struggling young people. For me the juvenile justice system is less important than how we look at the problems of youth and families in a more holistic way and how this cross-systems work can be accomplished.

We have a very local/regional focus. To be able to come together with people who are working more nationally or regionally in other parts of the country is such a great learning opportunity that we have not really found anywhere else.

Can you tell us about some of the projects that you are currently funding that pertain to disconnected youth issues?

For me, the single most valuable investment that we have made towards our work has been in building the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance. We have had some enormous successes through the Alliance. Now, instead of us going at it alone, we have an incredible partner that is a staffed organization with a primary focus around trying to improve the juvenile justice system in Connecticut. A recent success is the Raise the Age Campaign, which quickly and effectively influenced the state to raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction from 16 to 18.

We have other initiatives under our juvenile justice grantmaking portfolio around the school-to-prison pipeline, funding alternatives to suspension, funding legal aid services, and funding education advocacy. We are also funding a lot of vocational and life skills programming, which we believe is an effective alternative to traditional education for youth who fail in traditional academic settings and who may have been involved in various public systems. Typically, these programs are trying to re-integrate the youth into their community and help them see the value of completing their education.

Additionally, we are working with all of our grantees to be better advocates for themselves and for the populations that they serve. It's the people on the ground – that is, those working directly with youth and families who are affected by these systems – who should be out there speaking publicly or helping their clients speak for themselves.

If someone or an organization were interested in focusing on foster care, juvenile justice, or education reform, what would you advise as a starting point?

If they are a regional foundation, I think the most important thing is to learn all the various pathways into the system that should be considered. Get your feet wet with some grants that are working directly with the population. Also, try to meet with people that are touching the kids at different points in the system. Open your doors, facilitate conversations, attend meetings, go to the state capital and sit in on hearings. Never approach in an adversarial way and introduce yourself as a partner. Go into it with an open mind and know that system change takes time.

If you had to choose one policy priority for 2008, as it relates to older youth, what would it be?

I would have to say the policy priority should be around community building and local ownership of youth at risk. From the juvenile justice perspective, I would consider diversionary and prevention services as well as the education and training of local leaders. Also important are incarceration issues, poor outcomes for children returning from incarceration, and gaps in essential services leading to further deterioration of the communities from which these youth originate.

Also, I would suggest investing in neighborhood redevelopment, community change agents, and services in communities where families and youth can get the kind of support that they need to succeed. As funders and advocates we need to identify the areas that we can fight the fight together – not limited to juvenile justice, out-of-school, or foster care youth.