LSJA’s JustCareers
JustCareers is a Transformative Justice workforce program that focuses on connecting justice impacted individuals with employers.
JustCareers provides justice-involved emerging adults access to training in a high-demand career, 1×1 coaching, and support to navigate life’s challenges, weekly community engagement activities to foster growth, and assistance with support services. This program also provides training and support to employers as they move along their journey to hiring and retaining justice-involved emerging adults.
Under the umbrella of the JustCareers program, in July 2021, LSJA, in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation’s Civil Rights Division, Dallas College, and Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas launched our collaborative project, ConnectU2Jobs. In this 12-week, full-time training, participants spend 3 days in the classroom and 2 days with employers. Participants are paid for both their classroom and job site time by local employers. ConnectU2Jobs gives justice-involved emerging adults the opportunity to earn a heavy equipment certification that prepares them for a lucrative career in construction.
Project Partners
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Through our Youth Sentencing Project, we provide direct strategic litigation on behalf of youth who were tried in the adult criminal legal system and given extremely long prison sentences, particularly those sentenced to life without parole.
Youth should be held accountable for their wrongdoing in developmentally appropriate ways that consider their age, individual characteristics, and specific circumstances of their cases.
Our staff litigators take the lead on a limited number of cases every year, selecting those that have the potential to influence system-wide change. Last year, LSJA was involved in 13 cases challenging the transfer of youth (either as lead counsel or in a technical support role) and won 12 of these cases.
