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.
JUVENILE JUSTICE REFORM
Modeling a Restorative Process
For years, Sunset Youth Services has been working with the Juvenile Justice Providers Association and other community leaders to promote restorative-justice practices and reform a punitive system that mirrors prison and sets kids on a path to future incarceration. In November 2018, we and other community-based organizations began laboring alongside city supervisors to end juvenile incarceration, which set the wheels in motion for a historic vote in June of 2019 to end the practice in San Francisco.
Our role in the process? To keep the needs of young people and their families at the front and center of justice conversations, encourage collaboration among stakeholders, and model a restorative process in which politics and power dynamics are set aside in favor of what serves our communities best. The process was a complex and often frustrating one, but we remained committed to showing up, advocating for our disadvantaged young people and families, and engaging community-based organizations as much needed subject-matter experts. We believe this process has the potential to lay the groundwork for wide-ranging juvenile justice reform. We look forward to working with community leaders in pioneering a restorative justice model that works: one in which young people are given hope, the resources essential to thrive, and the support needed to chart a positive path to adulthood.
Advocating for the Needs of Youth and Families
Juvenile Hall Closure Slated for 2022
Sunset Youth Services staff spoke out against juvenile detention at the May, 16, 2019 San Francisco City Hall meeting. After 3 hours of public comment and a groundswell of support to close Juvenile Hall, a unanimous committee vote pushed the measure to the full board, and on June 4, ten city supervisors––a veto-proof majority––signed on to support the legislation. The detention facility could be closed as soon as 2021.
Speaker 1: Joel Tarman (Director of Digital Arts & Technology)
Speaker 2: Ron Stueckle (Director of Justice Services)
Speaker 3: Dawn Stueckle (Executive Director)
Length: 5 minutes
Youth Incarceration & Crime
The Incarceration Epidemic
To better understand the far-reaching impact of incarceration on America's Families, watch this interactive video powered by research from FWD.us and Cornell University. Click here for the complete report.
The Dramatic Drop in Youth Crime in CA over Decades
To better understand the plummeting youth crime rate across the state of California, and seen countrywide, watch this two-part interactive feature by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Please note: "The Chronicle reviewed local, state and national crime and demographic statistics from the past three decades for these stories, and compiled juvenile hall population and spending or budget figures for 14 California counties going back 10 years."
Relevant and Recent Media Related to
San Francisco's Juvenile Justice Reform
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SF Supervisors Blast Plan that Would Lead to More Youths in Juvenile Hall
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SF Plans to Close Juvenile Hall, but a New Proposal Would Put More Youths There
- "I felt it was my responsibility": A Probation Commissioner Spent 25 Hours in San Francisco’s Juvenile Hall
- Family Claims Daughter Held in SF Juvenile Hall for 11 Days Despite Release Order