A new program at Cabrillo College is dedicated to integrating justice-system-impacted youth back into classrooms this fall.

The Rising Scholars Juvenile Justice Program aims to provide educational access, success and equity for justice-impacted youth within the California Community College System.

But who’s considered a justice-system-impacted youth? Beatriz Tijero, the program coordinator who has been with the program for six months, defined it as a young person who has been involved or affected by the juvenile justice system.

Tijero explained that there are currently 20 students in the program who are enrolled in classes at Cabrillo, most of which are either taking art or business administration classes.

But despite encouraging people to take classes, another one of the program goals is to give those who have been impacted by the justice system a platform to grow and share their voice while also creating a sense of community and belonging at Cabrillo.

People like Eli Chance, director of the CalWORKs and Rising Scholars Program at Cabrillo, also hopes to advocate for the normalization of justice system-impacted students returning to school.

“We have students that tell us that they don’t feel like they belong on campus or in the classrooms, but actually, I think it’s fairly normal for families to have someone that has been a part of the criminal legal system, but there’s a lot of stigma with it,” Chance said.

Both Tijero and Chance hope to remove as many barriers along with any stigmas that are associated with their community.

“It’s been really awesome to see some students really excel and be resilient, and I’m just really excited to have this program here,” Tijero said.

The Rising Scholars program statewide just celebrated its 10-year anniversary in California. As a program that started out with just 17 people, it has now stretched across to 88 different campuses and has helped over 20,000 students blossom.