ABOUT

Keep6ix is a not-for-profit Toronto-based organization, serving the Greater Toronto Area, that was founded in 2017 to make a meaningful difference in the lives of at-risk youth from racialized communities who have been impacted by the criminal justice system.

Keep6ix offers various programs and services to help youth avoid going down a disempowering path toward incarceration. We also support and advocate for those who are currently incarcerated and provide post-release support so that they can overcome systematic barriers and stigma and begin to reintegrate positively into the community.

OUR VISION

The ultimate vision of Keep6ix is to reduce youth’s risk of involvement in present and future crime and violence by:

• Providing multifaceted services which aim at addressing and alleviating poverty as a mechanism to de-incentive crime among youth.
• Supporting criminalized, marginalized and racialized communities to attain positivity and break the odds.
• Paying attention to the particularities of Black, Indigenous, refugee and newcomer youth needs because they are overrepresented in the criminal justice system.
• Advocating for systematic change in criminal justice by challenging the system of oppression and discrimination in the justice system.
• Educating the key stakeholders in the justice system, such as the police and court, to center Anti-Racism, Anti-Opression, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in their work.
• Offering transformative and restorative justice as an alternative to the criminal justice system.

Our Mission

Our mission is to prevent criminalization, re-criminalization and recidivism for youth by:

• Providing holistic and integrated services that social-economic and culturally empower youth through entrepreneurship, music programs, and employment placement to youth involved in the justice system.
• Preventing youth from encounters with the law by providing one-on-one mentoring, career counselling, employment skills training and core life skills counselling to help build on their communication, interpersonal and leadership skills.
• Promoting health, well-being and healthy self-esteem in youth through mental health support, trauma-informed and harm reduction services.
• Partnering with other agencies to provide legal, housing, immigration and education support.

VALUES

Integrity, transparency and accountability, honesty, companionate, non-judgemental space, inclusion and respect for all our stakeholders regardless of their identity.