Sarah West Carson

SARAH WEST CARSON, LCSW, is Youth ALIVE!’s Clinical Director, where she oversees our team of dedicated mental health professionals. Part of her motivation to join Youth ALIVE! was her personal experience with gun violence as a young person. Prior to joining Youth ALIVE!, Sarah has been a dedicated consultant specializing in criminal justice reform, with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of trauma-informed care, family systems, and restorative justice practices. She has made a profound impact in her field through diverse roles, including serving as the program director for the One Family Program, where she designed and implemented a comprehensive trauma-informed parenting initiative for incarcerated parents and their children, overseeing operations across three county jails and two county-run reentry probation departments.

Sarah collaborates with senior leaders in sheriff’s departments and state correctional boards to develop, implement, and evaluate policies that address the needs of incarcerated parents, while also supporting national efforts to raise awareness of the devastating impact of mass incarceration on children and families. In addition to her policy work, Sarah provides training to social work schools throughout the Bay Area, equipping future professionals with best practices for working with system-involved families.

Her clinical expertise extends to her work with UnCommon Law, where for the past five years she has prepared clients for Board of Parole hearings alongside attorneys and authored psychological evaluations and sentencing statements for defendants in California courts. Sarah’s career has also included supporting disenfranchised youth globally, working with children in foster care, international refugee camps, and victims of child trafficking in collaboration with Scotland Yard, as well as providing station-based mental health interventions with the Boston Police Department’s gang and homicide units.

This diverse background informs her understanding of the systemic challenges at the intersection of mental health and the penal system. Deeply committed to abolition, Sarah focuses on dismantling systems that perpetuate harm, advocating for trauma-informed, community-based solutions, and amplifying the voices of those impacted by incarceration. As a licensed clinical social worker, Sarah combines her expertise in mental health, advocacy, and policy design to create meaningful pathways for healing and empowerment for individuals and families, advancing a vision of a more just and equitable society.