{"id":505891,"date":"2026-10-23T23:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T23:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505891\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T23:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T23:34:07","slug":"san-diego-activist-shane-harris-appointed-to-state-youth-justice-advocacy-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505891\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego activist Shane Harris appointed to State Youth Justice Advocacy Group"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Governor Newsom assigned Harris, a community advocate and former foster youth, to his first statewide role.<\/p>\n<p>SAN DIEGO \u2014 Governor Gavin Newsom appointed San Diego civil rights leader Shane Harris to the State Advisory Group on Youth Justice on Oct. 22.<\/p>\n<p>Harris <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbs8.com\/article\/news\/local\/community-advocates-urge-san-diego-county-to-reject-plan-closing-san-pasqual-academy-for-foster-youth\/509-19768e2c-b8ce-4d02-bbf9-5fc5cb967274\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">advocates for foster youth<\/a> and founded the Office of the San Diego Public Advocate, a non-government group focused on various community issues.<\/p>\n<p>This appointment would be his first state-level advisory role and is \u201cdeeply personal\u201d to Harris.<\/p>\n<p>                                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbs8.com\/assets\/shared-images\/icons\/arrow-circle-down.svg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                                This story continues below.<\/p>\n<p>Harris spent 13 years of his childhood in California\u2019s foster care system and after aging out of foster care, his work has centered around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbs8.com\/article\/news\/investigations\/san-diego-supervisors-support-putting-stop-to-taking-foster-children-benefits\/509-4d545de3-8ba7-49bb-a7cb-24cf06f90574\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">protecting vulnerable children<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were difficult moments in those years when I wondered what my future would look like and whether anyone in government truly understood what children like me were experiencing,\u201d Harris said in a press release.<\/p>\n<p>His personal and professional experience led him to this role on the <a href=\"https:\/\/oycr.ca.gov\/state-advisory-group-on-youth-justice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Youth Justice Advisory Group<\/a>, whose mission is to promote effective juvenile justice policies and serve California\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n<p>He will join 16 other governor-appointed members and two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/2026\/10\/22\/governor-newsom-announces-appointments-10-22-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">new appointees<\/a> in advising the governor, legislature and public on juvenile justice policies.<\/p>\n<p>In the last few years, Harris has supported state bills aimed at protecting foster youth benefits, strengthening child sex trafficking laws and increasing accountability for adults who solicit minors.<\/p>\n<p>In a press release following the appointment, Harris outlined his main areas of focus in this new role.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They include strengthening early intervention for vulnerable children, confronting child sex exploitation and demanding greater transparency and accountability from the systems involving youth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI also believe that accountability and rehabilitation must work together,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can protect public safety, support victims, hold individuals responsible for their actions and still recognize that young people deserve opportunities for restoration and redemption.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Governor Newsom assigned Harris, a community advocate and former foster youth, to his first statewide role. SAN DIEGO&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-505891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}