Delco re:View Summer 2019 - 28

www.DelcoBar.org

Youth Courts In Our Communities:
Systems change via the work
of EDGAR CAHN & the
CAHN COLLABORATIVE

PICTURED: William L. Baldwin (at left), Executive Director
of the Delaware County Bar Association & LASP Board of
Directors; Shawn Boehringer, LASP Executive Director;
Gregory L. Volz, Esq., member of the Pennsylvania Joint State
Government Commission Youth Court Advisory Committee;
Brian Foster, Youth Court Trainer; Hon. Nathaniel C. Nichols,
retired Court of Common Pleas judge, and primary judge for
both Juvenile Dependency Court and Juvenile Delinquency
Court in Delaware County from his election in 2011 to his
retirement in 2018; Leslie Faith Jones, Esq., Policy & Advocacy
Director, Montgomery County Public Defender's Office; Edgar
Cahn, Esq., Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of
District Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, TimeBanking
creator and Youth Courts advocate; Kathy Smith, Harcum
College Law & Justice Program Director & Visiting Scholar at
Rendell Center for Civics & Civic Engagement; Dr. Christine K.
Gray, Ph.D., TimeBanks USA board member who, together with
her husband, Edgar Cahn, teaches courses and workshops on
Co-Production, TimeBanking, and systems change at community,
professional, and graduate schools; and David Keller Trevaskis,
PA Bar Association Pro Bono Coordinator.

28 | Summer 2019

E

dgar Cahn discussed "true peer justice" and Youth Courts
as part of a 4-hour CLE/Act 48 training at the Delaware
County Bar Association on May 7. The 84-year-old
founder of TimeBanking has devoted decades of his career to
educational and juvenile justice reform. Recounting how the
day before, he had asked fourth grade students: 'Have you ever
been subjected to something unfair?', over and over, they said,
'I've been bullied'" but did not speak to an adult about it. The
students "understand the basic concepts of justice" even at
that young age, Cahn noted.
Southeastern PA school districts with Youth Courts in place
include Chester city, Upper Darby, Norristown, Cheltenham,
Philadelphia and Methacton, primarily at the high school and
middle school levels. Students are trained to serve as jurors, to
ask questions of the student offender (respondent) about why
s/he made the infraction, and how it affected the school, other
students, etc., before determining a restorative punishment such
as an apology to those affected, community service, and/or later
service on a Youth Court jury.
Interested in youth courts but missed the CLE at the
Delco Bar? On Thursday, Oct. 17, the PA Council for the Social
Studies (https://pcssonline.org) will hold a 6-hour Youth Courts
session for both CLE and Act 48 credits. *
http://www.DelcoBar.org https://www.pcssonline.org
Delco re:View Summer 2019

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