How It All Started

The Social Justice Youth Development Coalition formerly known as the Center for Social Justice Youth Development (SJYD) Research sunsets the end of December 2024. In 2020, the Center for SJYD Research was founded by Dr. Aishia Brown.

Since 2020, the Center for SJYD Research created several programs and opportunities to support the youth development ecosystem in Louisville. In the last 4 years a small but mighty team of staff, students, and faculty did the following:

Partnered with UofL Cooperative Consortium for Transdisciplinary Social Justice Research, UofL Department of Sociology, and Louisville Metro Government Office of Youth Development on the Youth Responses to Racial Inequities: Community-Listening Sessions and Advocacy Work.
Partnered with Metro United Way Youth Success Team to launch the Youth Social Action Project mini-grant program to increase efforts for youth-serving organizations to adopt SJYD principles in their programming.
Partnered with Family & Children’s Place CLASP after-school program on the "If it's perfect, then there's nothing for us to fix": Photovoice Project.
Partnered with Central High School’s Black Student Union to develop the BEE Real Podcast focused on building critical consciousness about social and economic injustice in Louisville.

Partnerships

1

Launched the Social Justice Youth Development (SJYD) Certificate Program which builds capacity of youth development professionals to address white supremacy culture and anti-blackness in youth-serving programs and systems.
Launched the SJYD Equity Coaching Program to support the professional development needs of youth development professionals working to adopt SJYD principles, practices, and policies in their programs and organizations.
Launched the SJYD Certificate Program Training of Trainers Program to improve program sustainability.

Launched

2

Created

Created a Youth Advisory Board made up of youth with historically excluded identities, especially Black immigrant and refugee youth, to create social action projects in their communities.
Created the Worldwide Youth Program to provide culturally-specific programming to Black East African immigrants or children of immigrants between the ages of 15-24 in Louisville. This group led the creation and production of Surviving the Odds: Untold Refugee Stories documentary film.

3

Supported

Supported the launch of ASILI nonprofit working to empower African refugee youth by providing comprehensive support, education and opportunities to navigate challenges, build knowledge and be successful members of our community.