Send our elected officials a message.
Madison’s youth deserve our investment.
In Madison, we’ve got a looming $27 million deficit in our city’s budget, an important choice coming up about who should be our Dane County executive, and a heavy sense of uncertainty and fear as we head into the fall presidential election. Now, as ever, we need to present a strong vision of the future we want for our community.
Bad budget year or good budget year, our priorities remain clear: we demand investment in the health, well-being, and promise of our community, especially in our most vulnerable youth.
We know what keeps kids safe: communities with access to stable housing, healthy food, great schools, and robust youth programming, communities where we treat youth like the gifts they are and address problems with proven solutions instead of more police.
Despite what the research says, despite decades of advocacy from the grassroots organizations doing evidence-based work, Madison politicians continue to invest their money and morals in the idea of policing as safety. We know that police contact is not what our children need. We know that real safety begins with the love and care of our youth.
That love and care doesn’t need to be hypothetical. We can fund the programs that give youth the communities they deserve. Together, we can demand that our governments focus on genuine safety. Let’s set Madison’s youth up to thrive, building full and healthy futures for all.
Want to join us in demanding investments in real safety for our youth? Interested in ways we could collaborate? Please contact us at ffjdane@gmail.com.
Why the emphasis on decriminalizing kids’ lives? A few resources:
The Usual, Racialized, Suspects: The Consequence of Police Contacts with Black and White Youth on Adult Arrest (summary of this article here)