\u201cFaith Harris exemplifies what it means to be a high-integrity public servant,\u201d says her colleague Dominique Clark, who nominated Harris for the award. \u201cIn her work with justice-impacted youth and their families, she consistently leads with respect, compassion, and an unwavering belief that her work directly impacts the lives of young people and families in Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seeing all kids as \u2026 kids <\/p>\n
A lot of 10 year-olds have dreams. Harris actually followed hers, to Penn State, where she majored in criminal justice, and became a sister in Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, whose mission \u2014 \u201cSoaring to Greater Heights of Service and Sisterhood\u201d \u2014 aligned deeply with her own. \u201cThose [AKA values] were instilled in me as a young child,\u201d she recalls. \u201cMy parents pushed for excellence \u2014 they wanted my siblings and me to be the best version of ourselves. So as I got older, aligning myself with other organizations and especially AKA allowed me to live that out loud and be around like-minded people who also believed in personal advancement and education and seizing opportunities while never neglecting the people you can help.\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduation, Harris got an internship in the District Attorney\u2019s office under then-DA Seth Williams before landing a job as a victim service advocate. She stayed at the DA\u2019s office for more than a decade, moving from victim service advocacy to juvenile diversion, where she worked with volunteers and nonprofits that did programming and case management. She was integral to mapping out a strategic plan to create more offerings for kids, who she felt were deserving of a second chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started doing the work in 2013, diversion didn\u2019t look how it does now. It was very cookie-cutter, it was a one catch-all, there was very limited programming, limited funding,\u201d she says.\u201dThere was also a lot of politics around whether or not we should have a softer approach to delinquency.\u201d Over time, she says that changed, especially since the founding of the JAC in 2023, where she is now a director. Harris has seen how community stakeholders, the government, and young people themselves started coming together to advocate to expand diversion and demand funding, and to push for more programming and opportunities.<\/p>\n
What Harris wants people to know about the young people in our city is that they are still developing \u2014 and we need to remember that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started to be more welcoming to young people, the providers became more willing to take a chance on those kids,\u201d she says. \u201cThey started seeing these kids like any other young people. And so it grew into something so much bigger.\u201d Now, she says, juvenile diversion programs are a national movement, and the JAC is part of a national network of support called the National Assessment Center Association.<\/a><\/p>\n The JAC is a lot of things. At its core, it is an assessment center geared towards triaging young people who come in contact with police. It handles 90 percent of all youth arrests throughout the city, excepting homicides, shootings, and sexual assaults. When youth are brought to the JAC, they are treated not as criminals but as young people \u2014 they are offered Goldfish and Pop-Tarts, Uncrustables and juice. They are given medical screenings, human trafficking screening, suicide screenings; staff talk to the youth to get to know them, and bring in their families to let them know exactly what\u2019s going on with the young person, what diversion opportunities they\u2019re being offered, and to provide services and resources for the youth once they\u2019re home.<\/p>\n \u201cThe big difference in what we do now versus what was done for decades is that we put the young people at the center of it all. Someone\u2019s constantly asking them if they are ok, if they need anything, what\u2019s going on in their lives,\u201d Harris says. \u201cIdeally what we want to do is treat kids like kids, and reform the arrest process to make it youth-friendly, because kids should not be treated as adults.\u201d<\/p>\n What Harris wants people to know about the young people in our city is that they are still developing \u2014 and we need to remember that. \u201cThey don\u2019t have all the answers, and they need grace,\u201d she says. \u201cThey need for us, as adults, to help them on their journey, to show them that you can make a mistake \u2014 but then you can be redeemed from that mistake. And you don\u2019t have to be your worst self.\u201d<\/p>\n Kids, she says, are very interested in structured programming, in gaming, sports and STEM, and learning skills about financial literacy or cooking. \u201cIt\u2019s up to us to expose them to opportunities to learn more about the world around them to find out who they can become,\u201d Harris says. So her office partners with programs around the city, from Mural Arts Philadelphia<\/a> to Students Run Philly Style,<\/a> summer employment opportunities and more. \u201cMany young people, they\u2019re lost. And it\u2019s the reason why some are committing offenses, because they\u2019re lost, not knowing what to do in some critical moments.\u201d For the young people who commit serious crimes that render them ineligible for diversion, Harris wants our city to ask: How was that youth influenced by their environment \u2014 and what can we do about it?<\/p>\n