Youth Services that Work!

Please join LA5 Rotary in welcoming Jessica Ellis, Executive Director of Centinela Youth Services (CYS) as our featured speaker on Friday September 25, 11:30 am.

With LA5’s commitment to youth and equity, CYS is well positioned as a non-profit organization founded by community leaders and parent activists devoted to stopping the school to prison pipeline by diverting youth from the criminal justice system, and helping them meet their full potential.

CYS employs restorative justice mediation, more effective than the court system in reducing crime and providing meaningful restitution.  The process brings together a young offender with the affected person in a safe meeting led by trained volunteer mediators who talk it out and work to reach agreement about how the youth will make things right.  Through its approach CYS reduces recidivism, improves public safety, and puts justice back in the hands of the community.

About Jessica Ellis

Jessica Ellis, CYS Executive Director of Centinela Youth Services Owing to the success of CYS’s restorative justice programs, Ms. Ellis is frequently called upon to provide trainings and consult on program development nationwide. As an advocate for underserved youth, she continues to encourage community involvement in racially and ethnically equitable and forward-thinking alternatives to traditional systems of juvenile prosecution and incarceration.