Tshaka Barrows

Co-Executive Director | Haywood Burns Institute

Pronouns: he/him/his

Tshaka Barrows is a member of the Executive Leadership Team with the Haywood Burns Institute. His work involves strategic planning, organizational development, financial oversite, project development and managing relationships with community leaders and system decision makers, funders and partners across the nation. Tshaka has participated in several national initiatives including; the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, the Mac Arthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, the Positive Youth Justice Initiative of the Sierra Health Foundation, as well as the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Initiative to address Racial and Ethnic Disparities.

Presentations from Facing Race 2024

Reimagining Youth Justice in Los Angeles: Materializing New Well-Being Structures

Today in Los Angeles, a group of committed people—organizers, justice system stakeholders, young people, and everyday folk—are working to shrink and eliminate Los Angeles County’s Youth Probation Department, the nation’s largest. This is a massive undertaking with seismic impact on the human services landscape and service to communities.

This group includes staff and leadership from the newly established Department of Youth Development. The presentation will share perspectives and experiences, challenges, and successes as they move from justice administered by punitive, inefficient bureaucracies to values-driven institutions steeped in supporting the well-being of young people.

The Los Angeles experience is an important story to tell for anyone trying to achieve system transformation. From the organizing that led to the initial political mandate imposed by the five-person county Board of Supervisors that started the shift, to the challenge of standing up a new Department of Youth Development.

Attendees of this session will learn about the key components necessary to move large systems for application in their own local experience.

Speakers: Tshaka Barrows, David Carroll, Raquel Mariscal