FFLIC AT 25
FFLIC at 25: A Quarter Century of Power, Persistence, and Possibility
25 Years of Fighting for Louisiana’s Children
For a quarter century, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) has stood up to one of the harshest youth justice landscapes in the country. In a state that ranks last in child well-being and first in incarceration, Louisiana’s children—especially Black children—have been pushed out of classrooms, denied mental health support, and funneled into cages.
Each year, 300,000 school suspensions disrupt young lives and fuel a pipeline that is anything but accidental. Punishment is funded. Prevention is not. And families are too often left to fight alone.
For 25 years, FFLIC has refused to accept that story.
Our Belief: Children Deserve Freedom, Healing, and a Future
From our beginnings, we believed children should be allowed to grow, learn, and make mistakes safely—and that real accountability comes from families and communities, not prison.
Over the past quarter century, we’ve proven that truth again and again. We helped close Louisiana’s most notorious youth prison . We advanced reforms across the state. We contributed to an 85% reduction in youth incarceration.
Our work is rooted in abolition, healing justice, and the leadership of parents and youth whose lived experience continues to guide the movement.
This anniversary isn’t just a milestone—it’s a testament of the power of organized families transforming a system that claimed it couldn’t be changed.
Our Work Today: The Next Chapter of Let Kids Be Kids
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As we enter our next 25 years, our Let Kids Be Kids campaign continues to push Louisiana toward real safety and investment in young people through a three-part platform:
- Mental Health Support: trauma-informed care, not criminalization
- Educational Justice: ending the school-to-prison pipeline
- Poverty Alleviation: tackling the economic roots of criminalization.
We train parents and youth as organizers, provide urgent crisis advocacy, and hold systems accountable—from the schoolhouse to the statehouse. The strategies that carried us this far — truth-telling, community power, and unshakeable family leadership–are the strategies that will carry us forward.
How to Power the Next 25 Years
To celebrate 25 years of fighting for Louisiana’s children, we’re launching a special anniversary challenge:
Monthly donors strengthen our foundation. They ensure we can respond to crises, sustain organizing between grant cycles, and protect our children year‑round. Our goal is to get 25 new monthly donors.
But monthly giving is just one way to support this work. Whether you give $25 once, $250, or start a monthly gift, every contribution pushes Louisiana closer to a future where children are nurtured—not criminalized.
Your support helps us:
- Provide urgent advocacy to families
- Train parent and youth leaders statewide
- Mobilize communities to block harmful policies
- Build lasting power for the next 25 years
It costs $456 a day to incarcerate a child.
It costs $75 to train a parent leader who can change a child’s life.
Your gift—of any size—helps us grow the movement that has already closed prisons, changed laws, and transformed thousands of lives.
Join us as we build the next 25 years of freedom for Louisiana’s children. Please donate today!