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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 392 679 SO 025 697 TITLE Youth for Justice: 1995 Youth Summit Compendium. INSTITUTION Social Science Education Consortium, Inc., Boulder, Colo. PUB DATE Aug 95 NOTE 277p. PUB TYPE Information Analyses (070) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC12 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Citizen Participation; Citizenship Education; Civics; 1 Civil Rights; Constitutional History; *Constitutional Law; Elementary Secondary Education; Government (Administrative Body); Governmental Structure; Government Role; *Justice; Juvenile Justice; *Law Related Education; Political Science; Social Problems ABSTRACT This paper describes the activities of the Youth for Justice programs nationwide. Youth for Justice is a un:que national initiative that uses the power of active learning about the law to build upon the vitality of young people and to address the risks of being young in American society today: Youth for Justice involves young people in law-related education programs that address national problems, particularly violence by and against youth. Youth for Justice's five cooperating national organizations--American Bar Association Special Committee on Youth Education for Citizenship, Center for Civic Education, Constitutional Rights Foundation, National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law, and Phi Alpha Delta Public Service Center--support a national network of state and local leaders representing every state. Youth for Justice builds partnerships among legal, educational, governmental, and community groups to initiate and strengthen law-related education programs. Law-related education is an important part vf schools throughout the United States. The report includes state-by-state summaries by law-related education initiatives, along with tables and graphs to present relevant data. (EH) »,%;.*****;:****i.A;r**********)=********************************* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. * " ."****************************************************************** YOUTH FOR JUSTICE 1995 YOUTH SUMMIT COMPENDIUM Social Science Education Consortium Boulder, Colorado August 1995 1E, EiEPRoDli E THIS MfTERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY ( C TO rHE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE,' INFORMATION CENTER .ERIC BEST COPY AVAILABLE The work reported herein was supported by subcontract fromthe National Institute for Citizen Education ill the Law as part of the Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention, National Training and Dissemination Program. Grantees undertakingsuch projects under government sponsor- ship are encouraged to express freely their professional judgments in the conduct of the project. Points of view or opinions stated do not, therefore, necessarilyrepresent the official position or pol- icy of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. 2 What Is Youth for Justice? America's young people are its most valuable, yet most endangered,resource. Their strength, en- ergy, and potential are unlimited. Their risk in the face of violence and ignorance is unparalleled. Youth for Justice is a unique national initiative that uses thepower of active learning about the law to build upon the vitality of young people and to address the risks of being young in American society today. Youth for Justice involves young people in law-related educationprograms that address national problems, particularly violence by and against youth. Youth for Justice's five cooperating nationalor- ganizationsAmerican Bar Association Special Committee on Youth Education for Citizenship, Center for Civic Education, Constitutional Rights Foundation, National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law, and Phi Alpha Delta Public Service Centersupporta national network of state and local leaders representing every state. Youth for Justice builds partnerships among legal, educational, governmental, and community groups to initiate and strengthen law-related educationprograms. Law-related education is an important part of schools throughout the nation. Youth for Justice is funded by the United States Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to maintain and expand the network o state wid local law-related educa- tion programs. Law-related education is designed to help young pf.:ople dz.velop into knowledgeable, skilled, and caring citizens. Young people with these qualities wilo aje given productive, responsible roles are less likely to be involved in undesirable behavior, including violence. Law-related education creates a learning environment that nurtures the skills and attitudes needed to help students become problem-solvers and fully prepared citizens of the future. What Are Youth Summits? Youth for Justice assists state and local leaders in organizing and implementing youth summits that bring together diverse groups of young people to explore state and local issues related to youth, suchas violence and violence prevention programs. Youth summits are designed to provide discussion between adults and youth on public policy issues. Youth summits have a clear purpose defined in cooperation with youth, who are involved in planning, implementing, and evaluating the summits. Young peoplepar- ticipating in the summits represent a cross-section of their peers. Participantsprepare for the summits by surveying the opinions of their peers on public policy issues and by formulating recommendations for effective responses to these issues. Youth summits are a vital element of Youth for Justice. The locally planned and initiated youth summits teach young people about the law so that they will lead their lives within the law. Summitspro- vide young people with opportunities to voice their concerns and recommend suggestions to curb vio-. lence in their communities. Most importantly, summits instill in young people their responsibility for developing and participating in solutions to challenges facing their communities. Young people emerge better able to take responsibility for their actions and to become active leaders in their communities. Summary of the 1995 "Season of Summits" A total of 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico participated in the first annual Youth for Justice "Season of Summits." Approximately 10,971 persons attended a youth summits in 1995, in- cluding a combination of youth, teachers, administrators, and other adults. Overall, youth comprised 80.1 percent of the total number of attendees. Teachers accountcd for 9.9 percent of those attending, ad- ministrators 1.8 percent, and other adults 8.2 percent. The largest summit included 3,575 persons; the 3 smallest summit included 46 persons. Theaverage summit attendance of the remaining 46 summits for which data was available was 159persons each. (See Table 1 for Attendance by State.) The following figure shows the breakdown of summit participants bytype. Figure 1 1995 Youth Summits Overall Attendance by Type (79.5%) Youth (8.8%) Other Adults (1.8%) Administrators (10.0%) Teachers FT- 11,0181 Summit Topics and Related Activities All youth summits focused on issues of youth violence, violence prevention,and related issues. Spe- cifically, 41 summits dealt with general youth violence prevention issues. Fivesummits focused specifi- cally on conflict resolution and/or peer mediation. Tolerance, school climate,racism, general law issues for juveniles, and youth crime were the topics of consideration fortwo summits each. Additionally, is- sues of domestic violence, media violence, and dropout prevention were the primary focus forone sum- mit each. Table 2 provides asummary of the topics for each summit. Twenty-six states reported having pre-summit activities for youth and/or teachers includinglessons, surveys, and other assignments. Eighteen states reported having youth develop action plans for howto prevent violence in their schools and/or communities. Twenty-five states plannedto have youth do post- summit activities such as community service projects, school-based summits, andreports. Funding Each Youth for Justice Program state LRE project receivedup to $7,000 during FY1994-95 to cover the expenses of the youth summit state planning team's attendance at the Fall Conferenceon Law- Related Education and Youth Violence Prevention in Washington, DC, the youthsummit, and other LRE activities. A grand total of approximately $163,970was expended from Youth for Justice funds for state-level activities associated with the youth summits: $128,082 for actual implementationof the sum- mits and $35,888 (27.5 percent ofa total $130,503) for state summit planning teams to attend the fall 4 conference. Table 3 shows the funding by state for the full cost of the fall conference and theyouth summit expenses from Youth for Justice funding plus leveraged funds and in-kind contributions. As only 27.5 percent of the fall conference agenda was dedicated to issues related to youth summits, Table 4 presents the revised Youth for Justice funding figures by state for the estimated portion of the fallcon- ference dealing with summit issues, direct summit expenses plus leveraged funds and in-kind contribu- tions. The state-level Youth for Justice programs were very successful in leveraging substantial localre- sources and in-kind contributions for the 1995 youth summits. Considering that 1995 was the first year of Youth for Justice's sponsorship of summit activities on a nationwide basis, the $296,348 in funds lev- eraged is especially impressive. The state Youth for Justice coordinators were able to leverage approxi- mately $1.81 in local funds for