The Youth Safety Advisory Council (YSAC) is a group of Chicago youth (age 16-18) who work to bring youth voice and youth-led recommendations into spaces where decisions are being made that impact the safety of the city’s youth. YSAC aims to reimagine safety for young people. The council collaborates with the city on police reforms and meets with city leaders to better understand the current policies and where they may need improvement. YSAC focuses on researching current policing behaviors and systems within Chicago to draft policy recommendations to optimize youth engagement with police by furthering accountability, transparency, and community voice – with a goal to affect a better, more just, and progressive culture of policing.
Notable Achievements
- Created the Youth District Advisory Committee (YDAC) for every Chicago Police Department (CPD) district in Chicago in 2019. YSAC presented the idea for the committee to the police superintendent of Chicago at the time and started with a piloted of program in 3 districts across the city. The YDAC program is still in existence today.
- Presented recommendations to train Student Resource Officers (SRO’s) in youth development and restorative justice to CPS Chief of Safety and Security, Jadine Chou.
- Informed the Whole School Safety Plan which presented alternatives to SRO’s in schools. YSAC helped create policy recommendations that would influence more schools to remove police from their schools and ultimately lead to new safety measures in CPS schools.
- Launched a survey to inform the work of the Independent Monitoring Team overseeing CPD’s compliance with a federal Consent Decree.
- Spoke to key stakeholders of safety in the city about increasing knowledge of the consent decree, the pre-trial fairness act, and the intersections of technology and policing, mainly the use of Shotspotter. The council crafted recommendations to increase the awareness of the Consent Decree between the city and the police department. YSAC is currently advocating for the Office of the Inspector General to produce an independent audit of Shotspotter.
2021 Recommendations
Throughout the summer, Mikva Challenge youth policymakers identified the most pressing issues and inequities currently affecting Chicago youth. At a town hall event, they presented their policy recommendations and identifying ways to take action to turn their vision for our city into a reality. Read the Youth Safety Advisory Council’s full set of 2021 recommendations.
Past Policy Papers
How might we improve the Youth District Advisory Councils in CPD?
How can community policing and public policy reforms inform police accountability?
