Shaping the Future: Conversations on Advancing Youth Justice Forum

The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform is delighted to invite you to the return of the in-person Janet Reno Forum on April 24, 2025! The Forum will bring together communities, partners, and leaders for conversations around urgent topics in youth justice, and how best to drive system transformation forward, together. Our goal is to encourage real talk about issues facing youth-serving systems, communities, and the youth themselves.

Register Now!

Details and Accommodations

The Forum will be held in-person on Georgetown University’s new Capitol Hill Campus. The 125 E Auditorium provides a large but comfortable setting, allowing participants to be a part of the conversation. We will be avoiding “panel tables” in favor of a more conversational, collaborative, and interactive approach, and utilize the technology in the room for multi-media elements.

Coffee, beverages, and refreshments will be available, and attendees are free to enjoy the beautiful Capitol Hill neighborhood for lunch and a bit of a stretch in the springtime air!

HOTEL ROOM BLOCKS AND ACCOMMODATIONS

We have reserved a hotel room block at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill. 

To access the hotel room block, go to: 
https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/group-booking/WASRW/G-JJGU

The Hyatt Regency is a short three-minute walk away from the Forum’s location on our Capitol Hill Campus. 

Please contact Natasha Kinmont at natasha.kinmont@georgetown.edu if you have any specific disability accommodations that we can address.

Conversations and Speakers

How can we advance youth justice in 2025 and beyond? How can we, together, shape the future of youth-serving systems and communities?

On April 24, we will drive the conversation forward with agency, community, and thought leaders in the field. Alongside a host of high-profile keynote speakers and expert presentations, we will spotlight opportunities for change in a series of topical conversations:

  • Conversations on the Future of Youth Justice will bring together leaders in the field for a deep-dive into the current state of youth justice, and how to shape the future, together.
  • Conversations on Racial Equity will feature an open discussion of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed as we grapple with racial equity in the youth legal system, and what we can collectively do to engage in difficult dialogues.
  • Conversations on Youth and Family Partnerships will spotlight not only the critical importance of including those who are impacted the most by the youth legal system, but concrete, implementable strategies on how to become active partners with them, led by youth and family lived experts themselves.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be announcing speakers, unveiling the full agenda, and diving deeper into each session’s topics, including providing pre-conference resources to help prep each conversation.

Learn More About the Forum’s Speakers!

Announcing the Fellows Network Gallery Walk!

Celebrating CJJR Fellows at the Upcoming Janet Reno Forum

​As a part of the Forum, CJJR will be hosting a Fellows Network Gallery Walk featuring Fellows doing strong work on behalf of the youth and families they serve. Join us from 4:15-5pm for this informal gathering that will highlight teams from across the country working on a wide variety of Capstone efforts and offer a chance for Fellows from across the country to connect with one another. ​​

At the Forum, CJJR will also be recognizing Flathead County, Montana as the 2024 Capstone of
the Year Award winners. The Flathead County Team’s Capstone Project focused on addressing incidents of harm on school campuses, limiting the overuse of exclusionary discipline, and emphasizing a community-driven approach that promotes positive youth development and community safety. The team partnered with the Center for Restorative Youth Justice (CRYJ) to offer youth an alternative to citations and suspensions for school-based offenses. What started as a pilot program in one Kalispell high school for first-time drug and alcohol offenses has expanded into a program that serves youth with first-time misdemeanor or status offenses within all three Kalispell high schools, an adjacent high school, and four local middle schools. The Montana Board of Crime Control has recognized the Flathead County Team’s work at the state level, noting that “this program is the only one of its kind in Montana, creating immediate and long-lasting benefits to all those directly served and the greater community.”

Read more about Flathead County’s Capstone Project here.

We are thrilled to announce the speakers for our Conversation on Youth and Family Partnerships. The session will spotlight not only the critical importance of including those who are impacted the most by the youth legal system, but concrete, implementable strategies on how to become active partners with them, led by youth and family lived experts themselves. Speakers include: Amiyah Davis, Project Coordinator at CJJR; Kimberly Martin, Policy Specialist at Coalition for Juvenile Justice; and Kyla Woods, Youth Justice Policy advisor, advocate, and organizer at the National Urban Fellows.

We are so pleased to announce our guests for the Conversation on the Future of Youth Justice! Our own CJJR Director, Michael Umpierre, will lead a deep-dive into the current state of youth justice, and how to shape the future, together, with:

  • Nate Balis, Director of the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
  • Candice Jones, President and CEO of the Public Welfare Foundation
  • Liz Ryan, Former OJJDP Administrator

We are so pleased to announce our guests for the Conversation on Racial Equity! Join Professor Kristin Henning, Jasmine Tyler, and dr. christian bijoux in an open discussion of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed as we grapple with racial equity in the youth legal system, and what we can collectively do to engage in difficult dialogues. 

The first featured speaker we’re thrilled to announce is former OJJDP Administrator, Liz Ryan, who will be participating in a conversation on the future of youth justice!

Learn more about former Administrator Ryan on our Forum Speakers page!