Peer/Youth Courts

Uniting Peer/Youth Courts Statewide

CFCC’s Collaborative Justice team hosted the first annual California Statewide Youth Summit on the campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz on August 7, 8, and 9. The summit was attended by 60 youth and 50 adults. At the Summit, peer/youth court participants and staff networked and shared ideas about their respective court programs, and promising practices. They also met with the Friday Night Live Partnership (FNL), a statewide youth DUI prevention program, to identify strategies that will be incorporated into the peer/youth court DUI prevention curriculum. This curriculum is being developed by the AOC for use in peer/youth courts statewide as part of a project funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). The summit convened members of the peer/youth court community to create a statewide Youth Court Association.

In addition, the summit held a successful media event that featured a live youth court trial hosted by Santa Cruz Teen Court conducted by Judge Heather D. Morse, the presiding judge of the Superior Court in Santa Cruz. Ms. Christine Patton, Regional Administrative Director for the Bay Area/Northern Coastal Region of the AOC and former Chief Executive Officer of the Superior Court in Santa Cruz County welcomed Summit attendees on behalf of the Judicial Branch, and discussed her involvement in the development of the Peer/Youth Court in Santa Cruz. She also underscored the support of Chief Justice Ronald M. George and Administrative Director William Vickrey, noting the welcome letter to attendees from Chief Justice George in the program materials. Other dignitaries speaking at the event included Mr. Scott Peterson, youth court coordinator from the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Program (OJJDP), a component of the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, emphasized the importance of this event for the expansion of youth courts. Mr. Christopher Murphy, Director of Office of Traffic Safety also participated in the event and expressed his gratitude for the AOC’s effort in working with OTS to strategize ways to counter juvenile DUIs, one of main causes of traffic related fatalities and injuries to teens in California and nationwide.