Our Story 

Access Youth was founded in 2009 because we saw too many young people pushed into the juvenile justice system for low-level, first-time offenses—and we knew there was a better way. 

At the request of the DC Office of the Attorney General and Metropolitan Police Department, we became the district's first restorative justice-based alternative to prosecution, using victim-offender mediation and family group conferences to divert youth from the system. It worked: more than 90% of participants avoided re-arrest. 

But we noticed something else. Many of the students we served were also struggling with chronic absenteeism and suspensions—early warning signs of dropping out. So in 2011, we moved upstream. We partnered with DC Public Schools to launch school-based Truancy Prevention and Restorative Justice programs, meeting students earlier and addressing the root causes of disengagement before an arrest ever happened. 

Since then, Access Youth has grown from one high school to eight schools across Wards 7 and 8—expanding in 2021 to include four feeder middle schools so we could reach students even earlier, in 6th grade, and support them through a full seven-year continuum to graduation. We've now served over 9,000 students. Our programs have become the gold standard for increasing attendance and reducing suspensions in DC. 

Our mission has stayed the same: empower vulnerable youth with the tools to stay in school, graduate on time, and avoid the justice system.