On Wednesday, October 19th, CFSY Youth Justice Advocate Xavier McElrath-Bey and Executive Director Jody Kent Lavy joined Futures Without Violence, the Defending Childhood Initiative, the U.S Department of Justice, and many of our nation’s leaders at the White House to launch the Changing Minds Campaign—a national movement to address the needs of children who are impacted by violence and trauma.

We are grateful for the opportunity to share our efforts to end life without parole for children and why “no child is born bad,” to remind others that most people who were given extreme prison sentences in childhood were also once victims of violence and trauma and that our responsibility to our children should not end the moment they make a horrible decision or mistake. We should never give up and always strive to ensure healing and a second chance.