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The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) is pleased to announce the spinoff and launch of a new youth-focused nonprofit that builds upon two decades of youth policy work.
The National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy (TYP Collaborative) will officially begin operations on July 1, 2024. The TYP Collaborative aims to translate young people’s radical imagination and aspirations into transformative policy and systems change by building power with young people and their communities.
The new organization will be led by Dr. Nia West-Bey, CLASP’s current director of youth policy, who will serve as the Executive Director.
“We are excited to carry forward our 20-year legacy at CLASP by bringing together policy advocacy and activism under one roof in service of transformational change,” said West-Bey.
“We look forward to conducting policy analysis and advocacy in close collaborative partnership with young people and integrating organizing principles and strategies into policy work.” The TYP Collaborative will focus on the needs and leadership of young people who have been most impacted by oppressive systems of power, historic and ongoing policy violence, and systemic marginalization. “By centering the experiences of young people, we will achieve more just systems and better outcomes for all young people,” added West-Bey.
CLASP's Role and Support
The Center for Law and Social Policy has a proud history as an incubator for several prominent nonprofits, including the National Women’s Law Center and Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, both leaders in their fields of advocacy.
CLASP President and Executive Director Indivar Dutta-Gupta stated, “I’m proud to help Nia launch the TYP Collaborative, a new organization led by a Black woman with deep passion and commitment to organizing the next generation of youth advocates and community leaders to drive policy change. CLASP looks forward to working side-by-side with the TYP Collaborative. Partnering with groups who organize on the ground is core to our theory of change. And youth and young adults—especially many young people of color—continue to be sidelined in much of our nation’s public policies and will continue to be a focus of CLASP’s work toward economic justice.”
Founding Board Member
Kisha Bird, a former director of the youth policy team at CLASP and founding board member of the TYP Collaborative, remarked,
“I am very proud of over two decades of work by the youth policy team at CLASP. It is an honor to serve as a founding board member for the National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy. I am confident that launching the TYP Collaborative is an essential next step on the journey to realizing youth justice in our communities.”
Continuing Initiatives
The CLASP youth team’s projects, including A New Deal for Youth (ND4Y) and Communities Collaborating to Reconnect Youth Network (CCRY), will transition as initiatives within the TYP Collaborative, continuing their existing work on youth mental health and youth economic justice. For more information, please visit: http://www.typcollaborative.org
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