Youth Justice Board Toolkit: Curriculum and Resources for Creating a Youth Policy Board

This Toolkit is a comprehensive resource for organizations that would like to develop programs based on the Youth Justice Board model. Specifically, this toolkit provides strategies and tools for how to:

• Select a relevant public policy issue;
• Recruit young people for the program;
• Evaluate and fund the program;
• Educate Board members to be effective researchers, writers, public speakers and advocates;
• Support Board members’ personal and professional development;
• Manage program data and information; and
• Build an alumni network.

The Toolkit provides a timeline and a set of practices, tools, lessons and procedures used by the Youth Justice Board. This is designed to be a flexible resource that can—and should—be adapted to meet the needs of other organizations. For example, the program can operate based on a shorter or longer timeline, or Board members may elect to create a final product other than a written report. Users also may choose to incorporate select session plans into an existing curriculum rather than following the model from start to finish. The session plans contained in
this Toolkit are merely a sample of what should be an ongoing process of debate, learning and engagement designed with the needs of Board members and organizational objectives in mind.