SELF‐Advocacy education for Youth: The Role of Law School Communities in expanding opportunities for System‐Involved Youth

• Author: Ann L. Shalof,Betsy Krebs,Paul Pitcoff
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12061
• Published date: 01 October 2013
• Date: 01 October 2013

PROGRAM PROFILE

SELF-ADVOCACY EDUCATION FOR YOUTH: THE ROLE OF LAW

SCHOOL COMMUNITIES IN EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES

FOR SYSTEM-INVOLVED YOUTH

Betsy Krebs, Paul Pitcoff, and Ann L. Shalof

The legal community is uniquely positioned to help youth involved in foster care and juvenile justice systems transition to

adulthood by helping them learn to advocate for themselves in pursuing their education and career goals. At leading law

schools, students have facilitated the “Getting Beyondthe System”1(GBS) self-advocacy seminar for at-risk youth, tapping into

law students’training to promote social justice. This promising innovation helps system-involvedyouth acquire advocacy skills,

forge relationships with adults in the community, and fulfill their potential to become participating citizens.

Keypoints for the Family Court Community

• Law school communities play a key role in an innovative model of self-advocacy education that gets at-risk youth

beyond the system in the transition to independence.

• Lawyers and lawstudents who promote and protect the rights of children can take additional steps to help young people

learn to advocate for themselves.

• Youths from government systems have not usually developed adequate self-advocacy skills which are necessary in

contexts such as education, work and career, housing, healthcare, as a parent.

• A self-advocacy education model at leading law schools demonstrates that the legal community can help youths

emancipated from foster care and juvenile justice systems take their roles as independent citizens.

Keywords: Aging Out of Foster Care;Chafee;FosterCare;Fostering Connections Act;Independence;Lawyers for Children;

Self-Advocacy;YouthAdvocacy;and Youth in FosterCare.

INTRODUCTION: TRADITIONAL LEGAL REPRESENTATION IS

AN ESSENTIAL FIRST STEP IN PROMOTING SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR

YOUTH INVOLVED IN GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS

Legal representation of children is accepted as a means of protecting our most vulnerable citizens.

Through the skill and dedication of lawyers, the rights of children have been promoted and protected,

resulting in significant safeguards from the dangers of poverty, abuse, and neglect. Lawyers,judges, and

law schools use various strategies,including direct representation, cour t oversight,and class actions, to

further social justice by providing for many important needs of marginalized youth.

Most children and teens in the custody of government systems suffer from the impact of poverty

and the bad luck of having been born into difficult circumstances. Unfortunately, while being in

government care is often necessary for their protection, it seems to exacerbate the challenges our teens

already face to attaining successful independence. (We say “our teens” because a government acts as

the agent for all citizens and taxpayers when it removes children from their biological families and

places them in foster care or juvenile justice systems.) If we are to take these youths into custody it

is our collective responsibility to ensure that outcomes for them and, for society as a whole, improve

as a result of our action.

Correspondence: betsykrebs@gmail.com; pithar@yahoo.com; ashalof@post.harvard.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW,Vol. 51 No. 4, October 2013 698–711

© 2013 Association of Familyand Conciliation Cour ts