Thanks to Wellmet’s funding, Friends' Advocates can continue to act as a lifeline for young people returning from jail, currently incarcerated youth, and justice-involved youth and families living in neighborhoods throughout New York.
Starting as a support organization for incarcerated youth who attended Island Academy on Rikers Island, Friends became a place where youth could find a community of peers and advocates who would support them and believed deeply in their potential as they rebuilt their lives post-jail. Friends operates and has post-release centers in four boroughs, provides well-being and career education, internships, arts programming and its advocates work directly with young people beginning when they are incarcerated, through their release, and beyond, including with those who are released to homelessness.