Young Women's Justice Project Extended

We’re delighted to announce that Agenda Alliance and the Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ) have been awarded extension funding from Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales to help us build on the success of the Young Women’s Justice Project, focused on making a positive impact on policy and practice for young adult women (aged 17-25) in contact with the criminal justice system (CJS).

Agenda Alliance has run the Young Women’s Justice Project across two years in partnership with the AYJ. During this time, the project made excellent progress towards meeting and exceeding our original project objectives, including:

• Building a strong and credible evidence base about the needs of girls and young women in contact with the CJS;
• Influencing government policy and strategies to take account of younger women, with a focus on Black, Asian and minoritised and care experienced girls and young women;
• Enabling the development of effective practice through more gender and age-informed policy; and
• Empowering girls and young women as advocates to safely share their experiences and use their voices to make change.

Through the funding extension, we hope to embed change by:

1. Working with the Ministry of Justice to develop a comprehensive Young Adult Women’s Strategy to respond to and prioritise investment in girls and young women at all stages of the CJS;
2. Engaging further with policing bodies and Police and Crime Commissioners; and
3. Bringing together youth/justice practitioners, specialist ‘by and for’ services and girls and young women with lived experience as experts on this work.

On the extension of the project, Indy Cross, CEO of Agenda Alliance, said:

"We are very proud of the work we have been able to do so far as part of the Young Women’s Justice Project, shining a light on the overlooked experiences of girls and young women in the criminal justice system and we are very grateful to the Lloyds Bank Charitable Foundation for backing this vital work. This opportunity will allow us to continue this work with the Alliance for Youth Justice and, together, we look forward to engaging with key stakeholders such as HMPSS to further the progress we have already made."

Saqib Deshmukh, Interim Chief Executive of AYJ said:

"We are really pleased to be involved in the next stage of the Young Women's Justice Project. It was important for us and Agenda Alliance to hear the experiences of young women in contact with the CJS, but the challenge for us now is to ensure that those voices and the powerful testimonies are heard by those who have power and resources to make the right decisions and calls. There has never been a greater need for a clear strategy and practice development which is better informed by gender and those who are most impacted who are Black, racially minoritised and care experienced girls and young women."

Find out more about the Young Women's Justice Project here.