Paige Haight, a research associate from Public Policy Associates, Inc., presented her advocacy experience to youth, mentors, and Ingham County Court officials at the Adolescent Diversion Program Recognition event on Monday, September 9, 2019. The Adolescent Diversion Program (ADP) has been partnering with the Ingham County Court to divert arrested youth from formal processing since 1976 by pairing undergraduate students at Michigan State University with youth from the Ingham County Court for 18 weeks to create strength-based goals. Ms. Haight was invited as a guest speaker to share her advocacy experience from 2011 to 2012 with the program. Ms. Haight provided testimony about the barriers faced by her youth and how she worked to help navigate these challenges as well as the current outcomes of her youth. The event was hosted by ADP director Sean Hankins and faculty advisor, Dr. Cris Sullivan. In her presentation, Ms. Haight summarized her role “My job was to comb through the knots and silence the noise so that my youth could find his path.” Ms. Haight works on many of the juvenile and criminal justice projects at PPA.
