The City of Philadelphia has been awarded $1 million by the Bloomberg Philanthropies 2018 U.S. Mayors Challenge to design a trauma-informed Hub for Juvenile Justice Services. Stoneleigh Fellow Rhonda McKitten contributed to the development of the Mayor’s Challenge proposal.
PHILADELPHIA — The idea for a juvenile justice hub started with a handful of Philadelphia police officers who knew the way they interacted with juveniles had to change. The judges of the Bloomberg Philanthropies U.S. Mayors Challenge are willing to bet their idea will work.
Bloomberg announced the nine winners Monday of the challenge that tasked cities to develop innovative solutions to their biggest problems that other cities might copy if they are successful. Each winner will receive $1 million in prize money to implement the ideas.
With its prize, Philadelphia plans to build a juvenile justice hub, where youth will be taken upon arrest instead of being taken to the police districts that are built to process adults. The juveniles can spend up to six hours in the small, cold, dank and antiquated cells, with minimal contact even with police— partially to prevent them from incriminating themselves accidentally.
