Burns Institute

The W. Haywood Burns Institute (BI) is a San Francisco-based national nonprofit organization. Our mission: To protect and improve the lives of youth of color and poor children and the well-being of their communities by ensuring fairness and equity throughout all public and private youth serving systems.

Core Strategic Approaches

We bring officials from law enforcement, legal systems and child welfare together with community leaders, parents and children, and lead them through a data-driven, consensus-based approach to change policies, procedures and practices in the juvenile justice system that result in the disproportionate detention of youth of color and poor children.

With our program, the Community Justice Network for Youth (CJNY), we build the capacity of local organizations to improve and strengthen their programs and organizations and to engage in policy work.