Projects
An effective youth cyber program empowers kids with the knowledge to be safe online, provides mentorship and redirection for at-risk kids, and advocates for justice-involved youth.
Take a quick peek at our three interconnected initiatives below or click into an individual initiative to learn more.
All Kids Active Online.
It really does begin that early. From our earliest days interacting the world, our parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, and others are policing our behavior. That does not mean law enforcement. What it does mean is imparting values, modeling good behavior, and encouraging good decision making. We all know what is right and wrong in our interactions with each other in the physical world.
Our digital lives however are a different story. We face a crisis: a generation of young people learning coding but not a code of ethics.
The re_direct Project is here to empower our young digital citizens with those same values and behaviors. We educate young folks on their rights as well as their responsibilities online with the goal of both keeping kids safe from cybercriminals but also keeping them from becoming one themselves.
Mentorship for At-Risk Youth.
Of course we’d like to think we’ll reach all kids before they begin down a path of cyber criminality, but we’re self aware enough to know that just isn’t possible. We also know that the old depiction of a person online as an isolated individual is a myth. Our online lives are a community. The trouble starts when we find ourselves engaged with those negative influences encouraging young folks down the wrong path. It starts with just being active online. Many youth begin their digital lives on online gaming. Excited by the challenge of beating the game, leveling up your character, or obtaining more in-game currency, our young folks begin finding ways around restrictions in the game. Many begin seeking out forums, chat rooms, or in-game chat services where these game MODs and cheats are shared.
Absent a compelling counter-narrative, many kids continue down this path into further more serious cyber activities such a DDoS, web defacements, and even SWATing.
Many kids who start engaging in risky behavior online follow a similar pattern.
Parents, teacher, community leaders are often ill-equipped to provide meaningful response and resources to these at-risk kids.
The re_direct Project brings together resources from private, non-profit, and academic community to empower our community first responders to keep more kids out of the justice system and re_direct them toward positive career and educational resources.
Justice Involved Youth.
Our obligation to young folks engaged in risky behavior online cannot end once law enforcement is involved. For many, the very first time anyone in their family becomes aware of their online activities is when law enforcement arrives at their door. Law enforcement and the criminal punishment system are currently not designed to provide restorative justice opportunities and alternatives-to-incarceration to these kids.
According to the ACLU:
• 1.7 million students are in schools with police but no counselors.
• 3 million students are in schools with police but no nurses.
• 6 million students are in schools with police but no school psychologists.
• 10 million students are in schools with police but no social workers.
• 14 million students are in schools with police but no counselor, nurse, psychologist, or social worker.
This crisis of over-policing our schools affects young folks engaged in any manner of risky behavior, the re_direct Project’s ultimate goal is the creation of robust, effective partnerships with schools, courts, and probation departments to keep as many kids as possible from becoming justice-involved.
Even temporarily confining youth costs roughly $1 billion per year nationwide. Diversion programs, alternatives-to-incarceration, and other restorative justice initiatives are proven to discourage recidivism, repair harm, and significantly lessen the impact of the justice system of justice-involved youth.
—Robert Listenbee
First Assistant District Attorney, Philadelphia, Pennslyvania
Former Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice