Internship Feature: Youth Law Center with Jasmine Miller
The Youth Law Center (YLC), a leading national legal advocacy organization, works to transform child welfare and juvenile justice systems across the nation so every child and youth can thrive. The mission of YLC is to advocate to transform foster care and juvenile justice systems across the nation so every child and youth can thrive.
Cooke Alum Jasmine Miller is a 2004 Young Scholar, 2009 College Scholar, and a 2016 Graduate Scholar. She is currently the senior attorney at YLC. In this blog, Jasmine shares more information on what brought her to YLC, and what Scholars can expect out of an internship with the organization.
What inspired you to join youth law center?
I went to law school with the explicit goal of becoming a public interest attorney working on youth issues and...I did it (with many thanks to the Foundation for their support)! I was drawn to Youth Law Center because I wanted to go to an organization where I would have the opportunity to work on systemic change in youth-serving systems, and I was interested in the strategies they were using to expand access to post-secondary education for youth in the juvenile justice system.
In the five years since I joined, that work has grown exponentially--our advocacy, alongside our partners, has led to California establishing over 40 community college programs specifically dedicated to serving justice-impacted youth both in detention facilities and on campus. I was also looking for an organization that I felt would support my long-term growth--while I started in our San Francisco office shortly before the onset of the pandemic, I knew that I eventually wanted to return to my home state of Tennessee, where there are far fewer resources for civil rights, systemic change, and youth work.
Youth Law Center supported me in exploring local work in Tennessee, which led to our recently filed class action lawsuit against the state over the inhumane treatment of youth with disabilities in Tennessee's juvenile justice system, as well as significant state-level legislative and policy work.
What skills or qualities are you looking for in potential interns?
Curiosity and an interest in digging into how complex systems work (or don't work) together. An interest in utilizing and exploring different legal and non-legal strategies for solving problems. A willingness to listen to young people and folks with lived experience in the child welfare and juvenile justice system (a number of whom are fellow attorneys and advocates on staff). We typically only hire law students, although we have hired grad students in other disciplines in the past.
What unique experiences or opportunities can interns look forward to during their time with your company?
While we are a legal non-profit, we have a fairly unique approach to advocacy in that we don't limit ourselves to one particular type of strategy- we litigate, but we don't only litigate. We work on legislation and policy, but we don't only work on legislation and policy. We do media and narrative work, we partner with agencies on implementation, we provide legal support and technical assistance to other attorneys and organizations, and we work in close collaboration with partners who are directly impacted by the systems we seek to change. Our interns get exposure to a lot of different types of lawyering, as well as conversations about when and why we choose particular strategies. I will also shout-out our very comprehensive summer training series that we've been developing over the past few years- in addition to one on one supervision and weekly team meetings, we host small-group trainings across all of our practice areas.
How do you think this internship will benefit the Scholars in their future careers?
If you're a law student interested in youth issues and/or systemic change, we're a great spot to land- even if you think you want to focus more on direct services in the future, we have a birds-eye view of how legal aid, public defense, and dependency attorneys work together (or could work together more), and we have folks on staff with those backgrounds. We are really invested in growing the field of attorneys who care about children and youth and using our professional connections to help folks find the right fit for them.
Any additional information or advice you would like to share with our Scholars?
Please feel free to reach out if you have questions about becoming a public interest attorney!