AHJN envisions a future where youth are empowered and the systems that serve them are transformed by using arts as a foundational strategy and catalyst for change.

AHJN has identified four areas of focus and shared purpose among membership. These areas are Arts Education, Collaboration, Advocacy and Training.

AHJN is the coordinating body for our members' arts education efforts to be integrated into detention facilities as a core healing-informed strategy for addressing trauma, redirecting lives, and as a foundational strategy for successful reentry.

Our efforts focus on transforming systems to recognize and prioritize arts integration in youth wellbeing.

AHJN, through its members, provides a trauma (healing)-informed hands-on experiential training as professional development to systems staff (probation, schools, other public agencies) in an effort to support change in institutional cultures.

AHJN believes in collaboration as an effective model to increase capacity, efficiency, and partnership.

As part of our efforts to foster collaboration and elevate the intersection of arts and justice reform, we're honored to have co-founded CREATE JUSTICE alongside Carnegie Hall in New York. Four gatherings over three years brought together a diverse group of artists, young people, policymakers, funders, nonprofits, and researchers from across the country to share ideas and work side-by-side to leverage the power of the arts for youth justice and reform.