Anne Kim's Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection has won the 2020 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice.

Goddard Riverside, one of New York City’s leading human service organizations, held its annual gala last night online, where it announced the winners of its book prizes. The Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice, now in its fourth year, celebrates the power of the written word to create change in the name of justice for all.

Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection weaves together deeply-reported narrative nonfiction, research, and public policy to document a long-simmering (and also long-neglected) social crisis: the fact that 1 in 9 young adults in America between the ages of 16 and 24 are neither in school nor in work. Author Anne Kim recounts heart-rending stories of young people navigating early adulthood alone, in communities where poverty is endemic and opportunities are almost nonexistent. Abandoned paints a stark picture of how we are failing these young people—and how this failure weakens us as a nation. Kim also explores solutions, reporting on how organizations around the country are connecting these young people to brighter futures.

The Stephan Russo Book Prize, named after Goddard Riverside’s former executive director who served from 1998-2017, was chosen by a panel of distinguished judges, chaired by Doug Bauer, Executive Director of the Clark Foundation, that included: Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winner; Marcia Cantarella, university administrator and author of I CAN Finish College: The Overcome Any Obstacle and Get Your Degree Guide; and international coach, storyteller and cultural facilitator Ana Polanco.

The inaugural prize, awarded in 2017, was given to Susan Burton for her book Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women, written Cari Lynn. Becoming Ms. Burton chronicles Burton's journey through the criminal justice system and her transformation into a life of advocacy through her award-winning organization, A New Way of Life Reentry Project, which has helped thousands of formerly incarcerated women fight the problems of reentry.

The 2018 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice was awarded to In A Day's Work: The Fight to End Sexual Violence Against America’s Most Vulnerable Workers by Bernice Yeung. In A Day's Work reveals the underbelly of hidden economies teeming with employers who are in the practice of taking advantage of immigrant women.

For more about Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection check out our blog post "A Conversation with Author Anne Kim."