Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/youth-leadership/)
In 2023, Equal Measure conducted a series of surveys with Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential partners to analyze their efforts in tackling the root causes of disconnection from education and careers with systems-involved youth. This report shares findings from that evaluation.
After 17 students and teachers were shot dead at a Florida school 23 miles away from her hometown, Ashley Freeland was afraid to step back inside her own classrooms.
“I was terrified to go to school the next day,” Freeland said, of that 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland. “And my parents were, like, ‘Ashley, you’ll be fine, you’ll be safe, just go to school.’ And I did. But I was scared to go and I know a lot of my friends were scared to go. “You don’t know where it’s going to happen next. And you don’t know who it’s going to happen to.”
Persuaded by that reality, Freeland raised $15,000 to outfit every class at 4,800-student Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Florida, with kits from the American College of Surgeons Stop the Bleed campaign.