What is Youth Court?

Youth Court is an alternative to the traditional juvenile justice system and school disciplinary proceedings. Youth who are referred for minor offenses and who admit their mistakes are sentenced by a panel of their peers. Youth Court employs a restorative approach to promptly hold referred youth accountable for their actions, to build skills, and to strengthen their ties to school and community. Youth are provided with positive peer influence and appropriate consequences. Youth Court empowers youth and communities to take an active role in addressing the early stages of youth delinquency. Youth Court helps to eliminate social barriers and unite youth throughout the community as they collaborate to intervene with referred youth. Youth Court is a resource for at-risk youth who may be referred by police departments, school administration, juvenile courts or parents.

Youth Court Benefits

The benefits of the Youth Court system include:

• Partnering in preventing juvenile crime
• Empowering youth as stakeholders in the community
• Building community by strengthening ties to school and peers
• Gaining hands-on knowledge about citizenship and law
• Providing restorative sentences to repair the harm
• Increasing strengths to benefit self and community
• Learning public speaking and leadership skills
• Communities recovering losses due to juvenile crime
• Communities gaining more confidence in youth
• Reducing juvenile court backlogs