Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY)

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This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , founder and executive director, is a law student (J.D. expected 2012) currently working for Disability Rights International in Washington, D.C. and a survivor of a therapeutic boarding school called Mission Mountain School. Ms. Whitehead formed CAFETY in an effort to give voice to residential care alumni and survivors concerned with disempowering and dehumanizing practices in residential programs for youth. This 3 prong approach to achieving systems change includes: empowerment, public education and strategic advocacy.

In 2005, after joining the Alliance for the Safe, Therapeutic and Appropriate Use of Residential Treatment (ASTART), a multidisciplinary organization sponsored by the University of South Florida whose purpose it is to increase awareness of the problem of inadequately regulated or monitored facilities, Ms Whitehead recognized the critical need to bring together formerly institutionalized persons to effectively address their shared grievances. She has spoken on the issue at numerous conference over the years, including having been invited to speak at the Gwen Iding Brogden Distinguished Lecture Series Plenary Session at USF's Systems of Care Conference, has been twice published in the Journal of Orthopsychiatry and has testified before Congress in support of the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008. She has also worked for various community based care organizations such as the Mental Health Association with NYC's Wrap-Around program, intended to serve youth who would otherwise be institutionalized and legal protection and advocacy organizations for people with disabilities, such as Disability Rights Oregon.

A graduate of Hunter College with a B.A. in Political Science, Ms Whitehead dedicates much of her time to civic engagement. She volunteers her time for various organizations and working groups such as the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and Policy's Leadership 21 Initiative, Court Appointed Special Advocates and Big Brothers & Big Sisters.