OJJDP News @ a Glance - November/December 2007

Conference Launches the National Association of Youth Courts

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	ASC Annual Meeting
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	Youth Courts Conference
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	FY 2007 Awards
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	New Look for OJJDP Web Site
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The 2007 National Youth Court Conference was held December 9–12, 2007, in New Orleans, LA. This conference was designed to assist jurisdictions in developing, implementing, and enhancing effective youth court programs. It also served as the official launch of the National Association of Youth Courts, Inc.

Effective youth court programs (also called teen courts, student courts, and peer courts) are unique to their communities but share the same three guiding principles:

Holding youth accountable for their delinquent and problem behavior.
Educating youth about the legal and judicial systems.
Empowering youth to be active in helping their communities problem-solve.

Marilyn Roberts, Deputy Administrator for Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), spoke at the conference about international youth court efforts in Japan, England, and numerous other countries. She informed the attendees:

Just as the youth court program has undergone rapid growth here in the United States, interest from other countries in your successes and experiences continues to blossom as well. Youth court gives young offenders a chance to make restitution for the damage that they have caused the community. Within the youth court, a juvenile's problems are handled both by his or her peers and caring adults who are trained volunteers in the youth court process. This approach is particularly effective because young offenders are taught by their own peers that there are consequences
for their negative actions. That is a concept that does not need translation from
one language to another or from one culture to another.

Conference attendees learned how to plan and implement a youth court, educate staff and stakeholders, and enhance existing programs. Training tracks included:

Program Planning and Community Mobilization.
Legal Issues in Youth, Teen, Student, and Peer Courts.
Volunteer Training, Recruitment, and Retention.
Strategies for Best Practice.
Funding: It's Not All About the Money.
Developing Your Community Service Component.
Defining Target Population and Referral Process.
Applying Restorative Justice Principles.
Planning for Program Evaluation and Data Collection.

National Association of Youth Courts, Inc.

The National Association of Youth Courts, Inc., is the latest initiative of the Federal Youth Court Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Justice since 1997. Four Federal agencies—OJJDP; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools; and the Administration on Children, Youth and Families—are providing support including funding of operational expenses for the first year.

Planning for this initiative began on March 27, 2005, with the specific purpose of creating the first private, national organization in America to represent and serve local, State, and national youth court efforts since the grassroots youth court movement began a quarter of a century ago.

The Board of Trustees and the National Committees of the National Association of Youth Courts, Inc., comprise 77 individuals from 20 States. These founding members include most of the individuals who have been and will continue to be instrumental in turning the idea of youth courts into an international movement. The result is hundreds of thousands of youth and adults involved in various forms of youth courts every year, serving the most at-risk children, youth, and young adults.

For more information, visit the National Association of Youth Courts, Inc.