From Formerly Incarcerated to Forever Empowered — When Jessica Nowlan first came to Young Women’s Freedom Center, she was seventeen years old. “I was living and working on the streets. I'd been incarcerated so many times, and I heard about this organization that hired girls like me.” So she applied. Thinking YWFC was like most employers, Jessica lied about her history of incarceration, job experience, and living situation. “I said all the things I thought you were supposed to say to get a job....

Holding Space By and For Youth in South Phoenix  — A few years back, a young man—we'll call him Aaron—was released from an Arizona federal prison, where he had been incarcerated since he was 14 years old. Before he could return to his home in California, he was ordered to stay in transitional housing in Phoenix. Upon Aaron's release, community organizing and social services organizations in Phoenix came together to offer support services for his reentry into society from incarceration....

Flipping the Script on Progressive Politics in Rural Arizona — Emily was just 16 years old when she knocked on Frank’s door. An Indigenous, LGBTQ+ canvasser who works for RAZE (Rural Arizona Engagement), she had been sent to the tiny town of Coolidge, Arizona (population 11,825) to talk to folks about the For the People Act, a piece of federal legislation designed to expand voting access and curtail corruption in campaign financing. When Frank—a white, Vietnam Veteran in his 70s—answered the...