YFI'S Many Chapter

By: Angela Mae Saguirre

Following the New Year, Youth for Innocence would like to congratulate everyone, especially our chapters, who have worked so hard to spread awareness and work towards addressing wrongful convictions for this semester. 

Through our chapter program, Youth for Innocence encourages youth involvement and peer-to-peer connection, where students can host chapters and work on local cases at their institution or community, and is currently hosting 13 active chapters in both college and high school.

Our largest chapter, Toronto Metropolitan University, has amassed over 39 members. With the completion of cataloguing and their RT notes for their main case, they’re looking forward to completing corrections and organizing information to begin investigations. With such productivity, the chapter is looking forward to diversifying its case load and working on Canadian cases.

At the beginning of the Semester, Swarthmore College hosted several info sessions to recruit new members, and currently sits at 15 participants working on 3-4 cases, working to intake even more. Swarthmore College is working to host other events, such as inviting

an exoneree guest speaker sometime during the semester, and/or a movie screening. They are currently scanning files for one of their newest cases in hopes of passing it on to another chapter in the Northeast region.

The University of Maryland has received their case assignment and is reviewing all of the documents that have been sent to them thus far. They are now in the process of requesting additional documents that are necessary for the further progression of their case. They currently have 10 members and are looking forward to recruiting more members during their club fair in a few weeks.

At the University of Toronto, their 12 members are working assiduously on three separate cases. So far, they’ve completed cataloguing for all three and are looking forward to beginning writing out RT notes.

The three dedicated members from Stanford OHS, after regrouping from the holidays, have transitioned from reviewing the brief to taking RT notes. The chapter has been working diligently and is looking to recruit more students at OHS. Similarly, All Saints Episcopal currently has four hard-working members, finishing RT notes and transitioning to begin investigating their case. La Jolla High School and Central Jersey College, as well, have worked towards the completion of their RT notes and case summaries, and are looking forward to intaking another case to further contribute.

We would also like to acknowledge our chapters with fresher volunteers, such as the Bolles School, which has gained 10 members, and Queen Mary, many of whom are working through completing their training, but are already working towards investigation for their recently assigned case.

We’re looking forward to our newer chapters, like Westview and Washington D.C. which conducted numerous presentations and garnered many members, and the prospect of starting a new chapter at Drexel University under the supervision of a professor, and seeing how far they’ll progress as we move forward, as well as what our current chapters have achieved so far. We extend a final congratulations and good luck as we work through 2026!