Serving as a Resource for Youth Defenders
The Gault Center exists to be a resource for youth defenders and others who work to protect youth rights and improve the juvenile legal system. We respond to requests for assistance by providing both long-distance and on-the-ground support and are continually developing and sharing new strategies to raise the quality of the defense of youth nationwide.
We welcome requests for assistance from defenders, juvenile legal system stakeholders, policymakers, reporters, and others.
The Gault Center’s technical assistance can take many forms and can range from answering one-off questions on issues of youth defense to providing in-depth advice and counsel on reform or education campaigns modeled on national best practices.
The kinds of technical assistance The Gault Center provides includes:
- Answering questions and providing written materials on a variety of youth defense and juvenile legal system issues;
- Helping to identify training needs and develop attainable training objectives in a jurisdiction;
- Facilitating coordination and cooperation among juvenile court stakeholders within and across jurisdictions;
- Consulting on particularly complex or challenging individual cases involving youth;
- Helping to identify expert witnesses;
- Assessing local policies or legislation and providing feedback on proposed reforms;
- Authoring, co-authoring, or joining amicus briefs that address critical issues in youth defense;
- Reviewing cases; helping attorneys formulate appellate ideas; providing substantive research, writing, or drafting of briefs; and preparing and mooting oral argument; and,
- Speaking at events or training programs on issues related to juvenile court and youth defense issues.
If there is a way for The Gault Center to be of assistance in improving the quality of representation of children in juvenile court systems across the country, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Technical Assistance
