Youth Justice and Power Union

With funding from Finding Our Way Home, Youth Justice and Power Union (YJPU) is centering healing justice as an essential component of its organizing. Community members, youth, and staff face compounded challenges from systemic oppression, generational trauma, and ongoing crises—including public health emergencies, global injustices, and local political pressures. Healing work is critical to sustain long-term leadership, prevent burnout, and transform harm within movement spaces, especially for neurodivergent, chronically ill, queer, and BIPOC youth. By creating intentional spaces for reflection, resilience, and relational care, YJPU ensures that participants can engage in organizing from a place of strength, connection, and wholeness rather than exhaustion or isolation.

In the coming year, YJPU will integrate healing, rest, spiritual practices, and culture across all aspects of its work. This includes circles for processing stress and grief, resilience-building practices, transformative justice training, and accessible 1:1 and group support. Retreats, art, somatic practices, and collaborative campaigns will provide youth and residents opportunities to learn, reflect, and act collectively while prioritizing well-being. By embedding care into daily organizing and campaign work, YJPU anticipates stronger leadership, healthier participants, and a more sustainable base for building people power. This approach will strengthen the organization’s capacity to win transformative changes while ensuring that justice, healing, and community resilience are inseparable.