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Young Black Changemakers and the Road to Racial Justice tells the stories of how Black youth become changemakers and speaks to researchers, educators, community organizations, and the public. Through many kinds of action, Black youth are driven by a larger purpose to improve the world for Black people. Black families and Black-centered organizations support and sustain Black youth's civic engagement. Investing in community-based organizations benefits young Black changemakers, and Black identity and community can offer belonging and joy. Black youth's stories call us to root out anti-Blackness in schools, on social media, and in public discourse. Black youth bring society hope for the future and point the way forward on the road to racial justice

This volume examines how volunteers and non-profit programs encourage institutional change in prisons and offer individual support and services to people who are housed behind bars. Through a diverse set of chapters, including two that are co-written by current prisoners, the volume spans the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, and juvenile and adult facilities. The book showcases the exciting, groundbreaking, and yet often unrecognized work that the voluntary sector provides in correctional settings. Collectively, the chapters highlight beneficial practices while raising critical questions about the role of the voluntary sector in prison and reentry settings. The chapters also offer useful information about how to implement innovative prison programs that promote health, education, and peer support.

This study explores how Black and Latinx young adults (ages 18–25) who were reentering the community from Los Angeles County jails viewed racial injustice in the criminal legal system in the context of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests of summer 2020. A sample of nine young adults participated in a series of up to nine monthly interviews between June 2020 and May 2021. The participants included seven young adults who identified as Black and two who identified as Latinx. Overall, participants held negative views of the criminal legal system and felt that police officers harmed Black and Brown people and communities. While most participants expressed support for the BLM protests, others doubted the protests as an effective tactic to address racial injustice. Even those who supported the protests described doubts about the possibility of genuine systemic changes in the criminal legal system and society. Findings pose implications for cultivating optimism for social change and countering legal cynicism among system-involved young adults.

Transition age youth (TAY) from the child welfare and juvenile justice systems experience high rates of homelessness, but little is known about the neighborhoods to which they return after they exit these systems. This exploratory study investigates whether housing options are located in areas where TAY exit public systems and if the characteristics of areas surrounding these facilities support their transition to adulthood. Results show that housing is not related to areas where TAY exit public systems. Further, supportive housing and shelter density is related to low-income areas. Implications for practice and policy on housing locations for TAY are discussed.

"The profession of social work in the United States has a complex history of perpetuating White supremacy and racism alongside a professed goal to achieve social justice and equality for all. The paradox of being situated as a justice-oriented profession that operates within structures of oppression and racial hierarchy has led to ongoing struggle over the definition and purpose of the profession itself. There are numerous discursive conflicts and actual harm that results from being actors in state sanctioned systems of unequal power while working toward a social justice ideal. Indeed, many scholars have discussed social work's paradoxical positions in relation to populations they purport to help: single women and mothers, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, and children and families struggling with poverty, oppression, and displacement (Abramovitz, 2017; Abrams & Curran, 2004; Thibeault & Spencer, 2019). Prior scholarship has centered around control and coercion with respect to the people that we profess to help (Fook, 2002); if social work is simply a tool to try to soften the blows of oppression, hence making oppressive conditions just slightly more "bearable" and thwarting resistance (Lundy, 2011). Other scholars have documented how social workers actively participate in state sanctioned racial violence (Roberts, 2002); and how the profession's social control function is in conflict with anti-oppression work (Abramowitz, 1998; Dominelli, 1996; Webb, 2006). This edited volume on Social Work, White Supremacy, and Racial Justice aspires to add context, insight and new ways of thinking to these critical conversations"--

"The profession of social work in the United States has a complex history of perpetuating White supremacy and racism alongside a professed goal to achieve social justice and equality for all. The paradox of being situated as a justice-oriented profession that operates within structures of oppression and racial hierarchy has led to ongoing struggle over the definition and purpose of the profession itself. There are numerous discursive conflicts and actual harm that results from being actors in state sanctioned systems of unequal power while working toward a social justice ideal. Indeed, many scholars have discussed social work's paradoxical positions in relation to populations they purport to help: single women and mothers, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, and children and families struggling with poverty, oppression, and displacement (Abramovitz, 2017; Abrams & Curran, 2004; Thibeault & Spencer, 2019). Prior scholarship has centered around control and coercion with respect to the people that we profess to help (Fook, 2002); if social work is simply a tool to try to soften the blows of oppression, hence making oppressive conditions just slightly more "bearable" and thwarting resistance (Lundy, 2011). Other scholars have documented how social workers actively participate in state sanctioned racial violence (Roberts, 2002); and how the profession's social control function is in conflict with anti-oppression work (Abramowitz, 1998; Dominelli, 1996; Webb, 2006). This edited volume on Social Work, White Supremacy, and Racial Justice aspires to add context, insight and new ways of thinking to these critical conversations"--