Who are the members of your team?
Christine Henningsen-Project Director
Joy Suder-Staff Attorney
Vicky Weisz-Program Evaluator
Invaluable support from CCFL, especially Chris Wiklund and Jared Schreiner
Krystia Reed-our graduate assistant who recently graduated (woo hoo!)
How long has your project been around?
Our project was established in 2016
What are you currently working on?
We are currently working on Project Evaluation-Youth Survey to measure procedural fairness within the attorney and client relationship analyzing data of youth with status offenses on juvenile probation in Omaha, who have been out of the home for longer than 6 months.
We are working on expanding our trainings opportunities to involve attorneys who have been certified to train on the JTIP curriculum, in addition to creating pre & post tests for trainees to measure impact.
We are continuously providing education to legislators on juvenile justice legislation including solitary confinement, sealing of records, right to counsel, and increasing detention alternatives in order to reduce use of detention for youth, especially youth who may pose a risk to themselves.
Finally, we are working on our grant application that is due in August.
Any new or exciting things to know about your project or team? (Personal or work related)
Krystia Reed was our graduate assistant, but she has gone on to do post-doc at Cornell. We miss her very much but are very proud of her.
Any challenges in the project/job assignment?
We are small, but mighty! We are looking to hire more project support staff, but sometimes it seems as though we are too busy to complete that process.
Smart, effective, and effective change takes time. Within the legislature, bar, and the larger community, overcoming misperceptions that juvenile court is “kiddie court” and that kids need to be treated differently than adults can be frustrating and exhausting.
Any goals?
We hope to renew our grant funding! We want to continue to increase youth understanding of the role of their defense attorney and their own role and voice in proceedings. We want to improve attorney practices for attorneys representing youth in delinquency and status cases. We will continue to promote legislation that is in line with best practices in juvenile justice and takes into account principles of adolescent development. Finally, we will do our best to ensure due process for Nebraska youth!
Any resources or places we can visit to learn more about your project(s) i.e. Facebook, twitter, website etc.?
You can follow us on twitter @youth_ne and we have a website http://nebraskayouthadvocates.org Huge shout out to Natalie Chin for setting up and providing support for the site!!
Upcoming trainings or events?
February 19th Juvenile Defense Training on Arrest, Detention and Special Education Advocacy
We have additional trainings coming up in March, May, July, September, and December.
Here is the link to Sherwood Evaluation Report: https://unl.box.com/shared/static/4wk7oun12jbeq7jglameporbeotj17yg.pdf