Girl-Centered Practice Institute
An innovative training program that educates participants about effective, research-based practices for addressing the needs of girls, young women and youth who identify as female.
Next training August 9-13, 2021
The latest research
Sounding the Alarm: Criminalization of Black Girls in Florida spotlights the inequitable treatment of Black girls in the education and juvenile justice systems in Florida.
Read the report
Welcome to The Policy Center
Everything we do is driven by girls, their voices, and their experiences. We See the Girl!
Listen to Girls
See the Girl
Through research, advocacy, training, and programming, the Policy Center leads in the reform of policy & practice for girls impacted by the justice system.
Give now!
Join our team
The Policy Center is hiring a Mental Health Professional, Open Doors (Anti-sex Trafficking) Clinician, and Survivor Mentors.
See open job positions
Previous
Next

We advocate with girls. do research with girls. train judges, attorneys, and service providers. provide girls with prevention and intervention. see girls for who they can become.

research

Research

advocate

Advocacy

training

Training

programming

Programming

+
Girls Served
Professionals trained
Referrals to the sex trafficking Open Doors Outreach Network
$
Saved the State by intensively serving and diverting 106 girls from incarceration since inception
"See me for who I am, not for what you think I am. See me for who I am and who I can become."
What girls in lockup want the world to know…
Maria - Incarcerated
Age 16
"Let girls share their story and learn about their lives and their story before assuming they are bad kids."
What girls in lockup want the world to know…
"Girls need therapists here [in lockup]. If they don’t get the help here, who is going to help them? I see why girls reoffend because no one is helping them. If someone helped, they would be on top of it ready to do what is necessary to be successful."
What girls in lockup want the world to know…
"Everything isn’t always as it looks. It’s not right to judge me."
What girls in lockup want the world to know…
"We are not all bad, all fast. There is a lot behind the girl you can see and look at. Just because we look a certain way doesn't mean we are that way. They should read our history or talk to us because that is what they will know. Listen to their story, it will change you."
What girls in lockup want the world to know…
"You don’t know their story, everyone is not the same. Hear them out before you jump to conclusions."
What girls in lockup want the world to know…
"Don’t judge us, there is always two sides to the story."
What girls in lockup want the world to know…
↑