Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/26/2025
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
About
For youth facing an SYTF disposition or preparing to step down from SYTF, community-based placements provide a crucial alternative to continued secure confinement. This training will focus on identifying less restrictive placements (LRPs) that are community-based, CBO-led, and designed to support successful reentry. Speakers Alejandra Gutierrez and Darya Larizadeh will highlight real-world examples of CBO-run housing programs and services, examine the barriers to securing these placements, and engage participants in interactive strategies for identifying services and housing in different jurisdictions.
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**Eligible for 1.5 Hours of General MCLE
*MCLE INFORMATION: PJDC certifies that this activity conforms to the standards of approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing Minimum Continuing Legal Education.**
Speakers
Alejandra Gutierrez
Alejandra Gutierrez is a Policy Attorney on the National Center for Youth Law’s (NCYL) Youth
Justice team. For over a decade, Alejandra has focused on ending the criminalization of children
and youth of color through community organizing, movement-building, and policy
advocacy. Her dedication as a child and youth advocate is largely rooted in her experiences
growing up in Coachella – a small community in California’s Inland Empire.
Alejandra’s work aims to create alternatives to system involvement and incarceration by helping
to strengthen community-led and healing-centered approaches. She does this by building
authentic partnerships with families, community-based organizations, and other stakeholders to
amplify youth and community leadership in local and state policy advocacy efforts. For the past
three years, she has supported local efforts to implement SB 823 and SB 92. Her regions of focus
are the Central Valley and Inland Empire. As a first-generation college student, she received her
bachelor degree in Psychology & Social Behavior and Chicanx/Latinx Studies from University of
California, Irvine and earned her law degree from the University of California, Davis School of
Law.
Darya Larizadeh
Darya Larizadeh is the Director of California Youth Justice Policy and Capacity Building with the
National Center for Youth Law. Her work focuses on advancing local and state policy reforms in
partnership with communities to reduce the juvenile justice system involvement of youth and to
increase developmentally appropriate services in the community. Larizadeh’s policy reform
work began at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at U.C. Berkeley
where she co-authored a report documenting wrongful convictions in California and performed
an evaluation of LA County’s juvenile defense system. She began her career as an attorney at
the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and Private Defender Panel.
Larizadeh’s background in education and women’s rights greatly informs her work. She has eight
years’ experience working in various educational settings and has dedicated much of her studies
and career both domestically and abroad to advancing the rights of women. Larizadeh
received her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law. She holds an M.A. in
political science from the City University of New York, Graduate Center and received her B.A. in
politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.