Starting a Youth Court

If you want to:

learn about the justice system
practice public speaking
learn to think on your feet
become involved in your community
then youth court is the place for you!

Congratulations, you want to start a youth court!
But what do you do now?

It is possible for you to start the ball rolling toward the development of a youth court, but starting a youth court is not something you can, or should, do by yourself. However, you have to begin somewhere.

First, it will be necessary for you to gain support for your idea. You can begin by gathering information about youth courts, finding a mentor, talking to other youth and adults in your community, and bringing the right people together to form a planning committee.

The following tips were developed to assist you in getting started on planning and developing a youth court for your community.

Tip 1: Check To See If There Is A Youth Court In Your Community

If there is already a youth court in your community, then you can contact the program and ask to volunteer. View a state-by-state listing of youth courts in the United States. If you don’t see a youth court in your community and you are still interested in helping to get one started in your area, then proceed to Tip 2.

Tip 2: Gather Information About Youth Courts

The more you know about youth court, the more you will be able to educate others about what it is and what it does. If you are able to spark other people’s interest, they may be willing to help you with planning and developing the program. There are several ways you can gather information about youth courts:

The website www.youthcourt.net is a great place to start gathering basic information about youth court. This website provides the history of youth courts, information on how youth courts operate, descriptions of youth court functions and models, statistical information, and many resources related to program development and operation.
If there isn’t a youth court in your community, search the listing for one close by to where you live. If so, it would be a good idea to contact the program coordinator and ask permission to visit and see the youth court in action. (Many youth court sessions are confidential, so you may need permission to observe.) Seeing a youth court in action will give you a better idea of whether you want to continue with getting one started in your community.
If you do get permission to go and visit a youth court, arrange for a time to talk to the program coordinator while you are going to be there. He/she is often very busy on the night of hearings - so if you want to talk to him/her it’s a good idea to schedule a time to do so before you go. Talking with the coordinator and some of the youth volunteers is a great way to begin gathering information on youth court. It might be helpful to make a list of questions that you want to ask the coordinator and youth volunteers. While you are talking with them, see if they would be willing to help you in planning and developing the youth court in your community.

If there isn’t an active youth court in your state or in a community close enough to visit, you can still gather information from youth courts in other parts of the state or country by calling, writing or emailing them. Pick a few programs and send out an email or make some phone calls. Ask them the same type of questions you would ask if you had an opportunity to visit a program.

Another resource that might be helpful for some of you is state teen/youth court associations or state networking groups. Currently, about 20 states have a state teen/youth court association or networking group. If your state happens to have one, this would be another good group for you to contact to let them know what you are trying to do and see if they have some information or assistance they could provide you.

See a list of state associations and networking groups.

Tip 3: Find a Mentor

Now that you are beginning to understand the concept of youth court and have gathered information on youth courts, you are ready to start asking people in your local community to help in the planning and developing of a youth court. But whom should you talk to? You may want to talk with your parents, teachers, or another trusted adult to see if they can suggest someone they know who could mentor or work with you during the program development process.

Sometimes, the mentor you need to help you in the development process will depend on the type of youth court you are interested in establishing. For example, if you want to start a youth court that handles minor delinquency cases that could have gone to court it would be helpful to have a mentor who is familiar with the courts and the justice process (e.g., law enforcement officer, juvenile probation officer, juvenile prosecutor, juvenile court judge, local attorney who works on juvenile cases). If you want to start a youth court that handles school disciplinary issues at your school, it would be helpful to have a mentor who is familiar with school issues (e.g., school resource officer, teacher, school administrator, or guidance counselor). These types of people can answer or help you find answers to questions that will relate to the type of youth court you want to implement.

Tip 4: Establish a Local Planning Committee

Once you’ve got a good idea of how youth courts operate and have found an adult who is interested in working with you, it is time to try to find some other individuals (youth and adults) who would be interested in being on a local planning committee, task force, or advisory committee for your youth court. This committee would be responsible for working with you to determine exactly what needs to be done to get a program started in your community and would advise and work with you on the tasks necessary to get the program started.

View a list of sample goals and tasks for developing a youth court.

View a list of the types of individuals who might be interested in serving on a local planning committee.

Download Peer Justice and Youth Empowerment: An Implementation Guide for Teen Court Programs (This book can help you and your committee identify many of the tasks that need to be completed and issues that need to be considered when developing a teen court).

Download the National Youth Court Guidelines. (This book provides information on how to design program policies to make your youth court more effective.)

Tip 5: Schedule and Hold Your First Meeting of the Local Planning Committee

Work with your mentor to schedule a time for your first local planning committee meeting. You will need to arrange the time and place for your meeting. You also will need to develop an agenda for the meeting. Send a letter out to your committee members at least two weeks in advance letting them know when and where the meeting is and also put a copy of the agenda in the letter.

This will be an important meeting! Some of your committee members may be unsure of what youth court is or unsure about whether they really want to help get one started in your community. So, you and your mentor should work together to make sure your agenda includes time to educate your members on the youth court concept and answer any questions they may have. You also will need to be specific about what you want the committee members to do (e.g., will they just be providing advice to you or will you want them to actually help you do some of the tasks). If you do have people volunteer to help you with certain tasks (e.g., designing a plan for recruiting volunteers, examining and addressing legal issues, planning a volunteer training program), make sure you write down their names, contact information, and what they’ve said they would be willing to help with. Follow up with these volunteers as soon as possible. If you wait too long, they may lose interest in helping you. Be enthusiastic at your meeting! Your enthusiasm may be contagious!!

Download a sample PowerPoint presentation that provides a general overview of youth courts that you can use or adapt for your meeting.

Tip 6: Start Working on the Various Youth Court Program Development Tasks

At this point, you should have gathered and read through a lot of information on youth courts and put together a good list of things that you and your committee members need to do to get your youth court started. So, develop a plan for what needs to be done, who will be responsible for doing each task, and when each task should be completed. This will help you keep things running smoothly.

View a sample action plan format.