I HAVE A FUTURE

Since we began in 2009, I Have A Future (formally known as the Youth Jobs Coalition) had worked to make a larger impact around structural racism and how it affects young people of color in MA. Despite our youth employment victories, the youth unemployment rate for low income young people of color is still double that of white teens. Despite the power we have built, young people of color are still being suspended and locked up at alarmingly high rates. IHAF is focused on two types of change - narrative change and policy change. We seek to use IHAF to change how young people of color are seen in Massachusetts - not as future criminals, but as the state's future workforce and leaders. We also focus on changing specific policies connected to juvenile justice, the school- to-prison pipeline, and the ways that young people of color are criminalized.