Expunge.io is a website designed for people with juvenile records in Illinois to kick of the process of expunging, or erasing, those records. It is a youth-led project run by Smart Chicago and controlled by the Mikva Challenge Juvenile Justice Council.
This project grew naturally out of our work together in our CivicSummer program. We interacted with youth on the Juvenile Justice Council (JJC) about what interested them, where their research took them, and what issues mattered most to them. Here’s what we had to say on project launch. Cathy Deng is the developer who made this happen.
Our current work revolves around continuing the work of Expunge.io by working with a number of key partners, including Mikva Challenge Juvenile Justice Council, LAF, Illinois Legal Aid Online, Cabrini Green Legal Aid, and others, to increase public awareness, support the work of institutions, and document the juvenile expungement application process.
We are also conducting focus groups and talking to youth about the current Expunge.io site so it can optimized to their needs in association with this grant from the Knight Foundation given to Chris Rudd and Mikva Challenge to “update expunge.io with new design and new features that will make the web-app more appealing and effective for its users.”