Youth and the Juvenile Court System: A Community Foundation\u27s Commitment to Integrating Voice and Community Expertise

• The staggeringly disproportionate numbers of youth of color in the juvenile court system in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, compelled the Pittsburgh Foundation to launch the Youth Voices Juvenile Justice Pilot project. The initiative sought to learn from youth who have firsthand knowledge of the juvenile court system and from those at risk of such an experience in order to inform the foundation\u27s efforts to improve outcomes for youth. • This article outlines the foundation\u27s process for engaging youth and stakeholders in a meaningful way to improve its grantmaking and to better support systems change that leads to reducing youth court involvement through assessment of policies and practices that create the school-to-prison pipeline. • To ensure solutions were driven by affected youth instead of the foundation\u27s own agenda, discussion groups planned in partnership with youth-serving organizations empowered young people to reflect on events that impacted their lives, on their hopes and dreams for the future, and on ways the juvenile court system can listen to their voices and respond with meaningful changes