As Psalm 68:5-6 (ESV) reminds us, “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.” The causes of adoption and care for vulnerable children sit close to the Lord’s heart.  Adoption almost always begins with loss and grief. Yet, adoption can work toward the rebuilding of a family unit as God designed, where each child flourishes in a safe and nurturing environment, where they know they belong. Each year in the United States, around […]

Three years after being released from state prison, 24-year-old Valentino Valdez, struggling to find treatment for mental health issues, was hospitalized for suicidal ideation. Cycling through detention facilities had strained his mental health, and the lack of standardized treatment exacerbated the difficulties he faced. Incarcerated youth are at increased risk of many health conditions, yet medical care for this population is highly unstandardized. Care often varies between counties and is frequently used as a last resort rather than a foundation for long-term health. This lack of consistent care subjects youth to unequal protection against illness and disease, a troubling gap in […]

At 16 years old, Edward Simms stood in a Virginia courtroom and was told by a judge that he was ‘irredeemable.’ Raised in a single-parent household by a mother who had him while she was still a minor, Simms experienced an unstable childhood. He left home at age 12 to live with his aunt, who later went to prison. At 16, Simms was arrested after committing three armed robberies in the span of a few weeks. Due to Virginia’s newly enacted three-strikes law, he was declared ineligible for parole and sentenced to life in prison. Think back to your own teenage […]

“It is a moral failure for young people to become system-involved in the first place,” said Alice Wilkerson, executive director of Advance Maryland and the Advance Maryland Education Fund, reflecting a perspective shared by many youth justice advocates. Her organization is a member of the Maryland Youth Justice Coalition, which advocates for policies aimed at keeping youth out of adult court, expanding rehabilitative services, and centering the voices of system-involved young people and their families. While this work plays an important role in supporting children involved in the justice system, like many nonprofits, it operates within a broader system that is […]

A recent forum convened by the Brookings Institution and Wake Forest University School of Divinity brought together legal scholars and public leaders to examine how the Trump administration has approached religious freedom through executive action, administrative policy, and public rhetoric. Rather than focusing narrowly on individual conscience claims, the conversation also focused on institutional religious freedom—how religious organizations, congregations, nonprofits, universities, and civic institutions experience freedom or limitation in the present governing moment. Incremental Executive Action and Real Continuity Christopher Lund, professor of law at Wayne State University, began by offering a measured assessment of the Trump administration’s executive actions touching […]