Dawn Stueckle
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Dawn has worked with young people in San Francisco for more than two decades, starting campus-based girls’ support groups at Lincoln High School and A.P. Giannini Middle School in the early 1990s and co-founding in 1992 the organization that would later become Sunset Youth Services. In addition to providing leadership for the nonprofit, managing staff, connecting with donors, and building relationships with young people served by Sunset Youth Services, Dawn partners with numerous community coalitions and city agencies as an advisor, change agent, and voice for the disenfranchised youth of the city.
In 2018 Dawn was elected to co-chair the Juvenile Justice Providers Association (JJPA)–– a consortium of community-based organizations that she helped establish in 2004 and which plays an important role in local policy-making, youth advocacy and has a strong voice in how funds are used to meet the needs of vulnerable youth.
Ron Stueckle
Co-Founder & Director of Justice Services
Ron is a co-founder and has been developing bonds with Sunset neighborhood youth since 1992. As Director of Justice Services, Ron oversees our team of TAY and juvenile case managers to help youth navigate the juvenile justice system and also works closely with the District Attorney’s Office and other agencies on an initiative designed to promote restorative justice in the juvenile justice system.
With over 20 years of experience working with and advocating for high-risk youth, Ron has played a key role building bridges to community groups and juvenile justice stakeholders and serves in an advisory role on numerous law-enforcement bodies. A former co-chairman of the Juvenile Justice Providers Association, Ron currently serves on the executive committee.
He worked on the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative in the 1990s to reduce youth lockup in the juvenile court process and in 2008, as a member of the Juvenile Justice Association, was invited by a member of the Police Commission to work with Law enforcement officials, the Office of Citizens Complaints, and other Justice System advocates to develop new procedures governing police interactions with youth. That work, in turn, led the group to create and launch the “Know Your Rights” campaign, helping young people understand street laws.
He has also served on the San Francisco Police Chief’s Youth Service Provider’s Forum from 2009–12, tasked with educating and helping define the Police Department’s policy on interacting with juveniles in various settings. In 2014 in a state-mandated assessment, Ron also helped evaluate the Juvenile Justice Center’s detention facility and procedures to ensure that youth are housed in safe and humane conditions.
In 2014 the local district Police Captain also invited him to address officers in their morning briefing, and Ron and Dawn hosted them at the SYS Center. Such encounters serve to familiarize officers with SYS, humanize young offenders, promote restorative practices, and open lines of communication for future youth encounters. Ron’s behind-the-scenes work is critical to diverting youth from incarceration to more productive forms of support, education, and employment offered by SYS.
In 2016 Ron participated in the anti-bias training of high-ranking officers at the invitation of the Deputy Chief of Police. Since 2013 Ron has continued to work on the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council, an interdepartmental and multi-agency council that is charged with developing and implementing a continuum of county-based responses to juvenile crime.
A professional musician, Ron teaches bass and guitar and leads multimedia projects in Sunset Youth Services’ Digital Arts Program, coordinating a wide range of musical and artistic projects aimed at helping kids develop music skills, express themselves, and build self-esteem.