Teen Court Newsletter
 

Summer 2016
   
 
 
Summer 2016 
Schedule


Thursday, August 18th
Court @ Eureka Courthouse, 4:15pm

Saturday, September 10th 
Humboldt Pride Festival @ Halvorsen Park, Eureka
9:30am-5pm

Thursday, September 15th
Court @ Eureka Courthouse, 4:15pm

Saturday, September 17th
Leaders Training @ Eureka Teen Center, 4:15-5:45pm

Thursday, September 22nd
Leaders Meeting @ Eureka Teen Center 4:15pm

Saturday, October 1st
Jury Training
@ Eureka Teen Center 

Thursday, October 6th
Court @ Eureka Courthouse, 4:15pm

Thursday, October 13th
Leaders Meeting @ Eureka Teen Center, 4:15-5:45pm

Thursday,October 20th
Court @ Eureka Courthouse, 4:15pm

Thursday, October 27th
Leaders Meeting @ Eureka Courthouse, 4:15pm



Current Mentor Attorneys

* Shelly Addison
*Christina Allbright
*Luke Brownfield
*Bryan Daley
*Randall Davis
*Natalie Duke
*Richard Hendry
*Ryan Hurley
*Neal Latt
*Anne Nguyen
*Greg Rael
*Erin Rowe
*Casey Russo
*Jeffrey Schwartz
*Megan Yarnall
In June we took 6 youth to UC Santa Cruz for the 11th Annual Youth Court Summit. We want to give a big shout out to the Humboldt Sponsors for helping to fund this amazing trip! The summit provided us an opportunity to learn about and share best practices on areas such as juvenile court diversion, truancy prevention, and civics education. Kelsey and Sacha presented a Trauma & Resiliency workshops that we plan to make an integral part of our program in upcoming year. The new ideas that were discussed at the Summit mixed with the new ideas that we gathered from visiting the Marin County Youth Court in April has developed into a strong desire to implement changes in our own Youth Court in order to be more true to our values of Restorative Justice and Harm Reduction. Teen Court  youth will now lead focus group sessions on new court innovations to implement at our own Teen Court. We look forward to sharing these changes as they progress!

Second Chances
We had our annual Second Chances fundraising event in May and it was a big Success!! Below are some photos of our display. Other photos can be viewed on our
 website  HERE.  
Through sponsorship and our raffle we raised $15,367 exceeding our goal of $15,000 for our 15 year anniversary.  We want to give another shout out to Jonathan & Erin Flyer who gave us a generous gift of $10,000 to help support our program. Directly below is a picture of some of our youth presenting the Flyers with an orchid and a card at our Court session in July to show our appreciation.
Also in May, the Humboldt County BAR Association awarded Teen Court a $3,000 grant! Below is a picture of Sacha & some of our youth accepting this generous gift at another court session of ours.


Attention Volunteers!!                
Sign-ups have started for our Teen Court leaders program for the upcoming school year, and we want you to join! The leaders program consists of a group of volunteers that meets to discuss ways to improve court, plan fundraisers, and events, host guest speakers related to the legal field, and connect with other youth groups in the area. Leaders is a great way to become more involved in Teen Court, and learn more about Restorative Justice and alternatives to incarceration while earning community service hours and making friends with other volunteers! Meetings are on Thursdays twice a month (every Thursday when we don't have court), and we request that a semester long commitment be made.
 
News Briefs 
May 
  • Second Chances 
    • On May 7th, we held our fundraiser event. Six of our youth assisted with raffle sales and tabling with our Teen Court information. A lot of our Teen Court supporters and mentor attorneys showed up at the event. It was a lively evening for all. We got a fair amount of radio/TV exposure- we were on KHSU Art Waves, Bi-Coastal media in the morning, and Live at 5- Channel 3 TV.
  • North Coast Journal Article
    • Linda Stansberry from the NorthCoast Journal attended one of our Teen Court sessions and then wrote a great article about us that can be read HERE
  • Year-End Volunteer Appreciation Party
    • We celebrated our volunteers and the end of the school year with complimentary yogurt at Ultimate Yogurt in Eureka. 
  • New Mentor Attorney
    • We want to welcome our new mentor attorneys, Bryan Daley and 
      Anne Nguyen!!
  • Bryan Daley is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School and was  admitted to practice in 2003. He l eft private practice in San Francisco and moved to Humboldt County in February 2012 to become the first Research Attorney at the Humboldt County Superior Court. He  enjoys spending time with his dogs, Peanut and Butters.
       

 

  • Anne Nguyen is a graduate of UCLA and UCLA School of Law and was admitted to practice in 2003. She worked in private sector in San Francisco and Los Angeles prior to moving to Humboldt County in October 2013. She is currently serving as a Deputy County Counsel in the Humboldt County Counsel's Office. She is a Game of Thrones enthusiast and reality TV junkie.

 

  • Leaders Program
    • On May 12, 5 Leaders observed an adult court session. This was great for seeing the difference from Teen Court and learning more about a judge's decision making process at a sentencing hearing. This was their last Leaders meeting for the year. Several of the youth will continue next year with Leaders.
  • Volunteers Appreciation Party                          
    • Year End Appreciation Party: On May 19, we celebrated our volunteers and the end of the school year with complimentary yogurt at Ultimate Yogurt in Eureka. 
  • Homepage Radio Appearance 
    • Kelsey and Leah Selcer were on the KHSU Homepage talking about Teen Court, JJDPC, and Second Chances. This was a great opportunity to share info about our 15th anniversary.
June 
  • Volunteer of the Month
    • Alex Pena was recognized as our Volunteer of the Month for June. She attended the Youth Court Summit, helped us with interpretation with a Spanish speaking mother, and will become a TC Leader next year. We appreciate her enthusiasm and skills she brings to TC.
       
  • Thursday Night Talk
    • On June 9th, Teen Court was highlighted on this hour-long radio show on KHSU. Leah Selcer (Student volunteer), Ryan Hurley Mentor attorney), and Sacha Marini all participated in the lively conversation about TC and issues facing youth in Humboldt County.
  • Teen Court Annual Strategy Retreat 
    • On June 14th, Sacha and Kelsey met at Humboldt Area Foundation to map out our strategy plan for 1) Referrals; 2) Leaders; and 3) Court Innovations. We took a narrower focus this year in order to really get a handle on these most important elements of our program which need attention.
July
  • Volunteer of the Month
    • Jennifer Blaine was recognized as Volunteer of the Month for July 2016. She has shown great interest in participating in many aspects of BGCR Teen Center, as well as Teen Court. We welcome her consistency and participation. 
  • Eureka High School Referral Meeting 
    • Sacha and Kelsey met with Rob Standish to discuss diverting suspension level cases to Teen Court. He is on board and will send first time offenses to our Brief Interventions for Substance Using Adolescents, and then second offenses to Teen Court. He will focus on AOD cases, as other type cases may be handled in house by Scott Mauroff with Restorative Circle processes. He anticipates he will send about 6-30 cases per month. This could be a huge leap in the number of cases we handle.
  • Probation Meeting 
    • On July 12, Sacha met with Supervising Intake Officer Dore Haws, new Diversion officer Annie Brownwood, and new Intake staff Heather Craven, in order to coach both Annie and Heather on the logistics and details of referring cases to Teen Court.
  •  Fortuna Police Department Referral Meeting
    • On July 19, Sacha and Kelsey met with Chief Doberstein, Matt Eberhardt, and Robyn to discuss a new direct referral stream from FPD. They are indeed interested and saying yes- they want to directly divert cases to Teen Court. They need to work on some of the logistics in order to prepare for this shift, but are glad for the opportunity. We hope to have this up and running in the coming months.
  • Eureka Rotary Presentation 
    • On July 18th, Sacha and two youth presented at the Rotary luncheon. The 2 youth, Leah Selcer and Alex Pena, interviewed each other as to why they volunteer and the things they have witnessed as positive impacts. This was warmly received and was a great opportunity for our youth to speak about our program- which they are passionate about.

  • 4-H Statewide Conference Presentation

    • On July 30, Sacha, Kelsey, and Jenna who is in the leaders program, led a workshop on Racial Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System at the 4-H conference held at HSU.
  • Innovations Meeting  
    • Leaders met to discuss new innovations for our Teen Court program. After attending the statewide Youth Court Summit, and Marin field trip, they are excited to implement new ideas. They understand that this will be work to implement over the coming year- not a quick process- as they want to be deliberate, in agreement, and thoughtful in all considerations. Already we are implementing a new method of self-introductions at the court hearing on Thursday, July 21. This way, they can see the fruition of their decisions and see how it does or doesn't work. The youth leading this process of changes is the fruition of laying the foundation of their leadership over the past several years. We are all ready for them to step up and lead the way in many aspects of our Teen Court program. We feel honored to be adults supporting their growth.
Assignment Highlight:
Create Your Own!!
 
One of the great things about the Humboldt County Teen Court is that we give our youth volunteers the power to create their own assignments for our clients. This way our volunteers can tailor a unique assignment for each client, avoiding the "one assignment fits all" concept.  A creative assignment can take different elements from the list of possible assignments or create a completely different one! If the client has a passion for writing then the jury can alter the "Reflection Project" assignment to allow the client to use story telling to reflect on their violation and how it has impacted their family, community, the victim if there was one, and them personally. Creating your own assignment allows volunteers to think outside the box. What led to this client's offense? How can it be avoided in the future? The possibilities are endless! 

Humboldt County Teen Court

3015 J Street, Eureka CA 95501

(707)444-0153

hcteencourt@bgcredwoods.org