Youth Court and Second Chances:
Diversion as a Platform for Youth Development
Monday, November 3, 2025 1:00-4:00 pm
Join lawyers, teachers and youth advocates as they discuss youth courts, and their role in giving youth with behavioral problems a second chance. This is an overview of how youth run youth courts can help reform discipline both in schools and in juvenile justice systems. This seminar will introduce you to the empowering benefits of youth courts as well as the challenges advocates experience with implementation. High quality youth courts are restorative, trauma informed. and inexpensive to operate. Learn how positive peer pressure helps children with behavioral problems improve their conduct.
Attendees will learn the latest medical findings on the development of the adolescent brain and how trauma can diminish conflict resolution. Attendees will learn how to integrate youth courts into elementary, middle, and high schools and as a diversionary program for the juvenile justice system. Four unique panels of experts in the fields of law, justice, medicine and education will lead discussions on best youth court practices. Relevant state and local policy reports will be discussed by youth court practitioners, and administrative staff. Attendees will learn how youth courts builds new resources to help troubled children.
Panelists will explore the need for youth courts as a diversionary program to assist behaviorally challenged and/or traumatized youth.
Attorney attendees who register to attend in person or online will receive 3 CLE (1 ethical and 2 substantive), ethics credit only if you attend the full 3 hours, otherwise just substantive credits)
Teachers will receive Act 48 credits (3 hours).
The seminar is hosted at the Delaware County Bar Association and sponsored by the Pro Bono Office of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Cahn Collaborative, LEAP 50, Foundation for Delaware County, and the Pennsylvania Council for Social Studies.
1:00 PM-1:40 PM. What are youth courts? Videos of youth courts in action and discussion of training issues.
1:40 PM-2:20 PM. Why do we need youth courts? Trauma and Diversion. Discuss ACES, and adolescent brain development and re-traumatization of youth. 2023 Delco Diversion Report and 2023 PCCD Delinquency Prevention Report
2:20 PM 2:30 PM BREAK
2:30 PM-3:15 PM. How to design and implement youth court? Panelists discuss organizational issues, barriers, sustainability, costs, PA youth court bill, and Street Law YC Collaborative.
3:15 PM-4:00 PM Connecting dots to block the school-to-prison pipeline. Panelists AND attendees discuss next steps and how to move forward with a community response.
Evaluation
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The Cahn Collaborative is a loosely organized group of programs and individuals intended to both honor and perpetuate the life work of Edgar Cahn. Partners include Swarthmore College, the Widener Delaware Law School, the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, youth court programs in schools around the region and more. The Cahn Collaborative is a multi-sector partnership between law firms, legal entities, K-12 educational institutions, community groups, law schools and higher education institutions, and philanthropy to memorialize the social justice activities of Edgar Cahn and to ensure they continue to be utilized to assist disadvantaged populations. Preserving his ideas and work is very important if disadvantaged populations are to successfully advance their lives.
The Cahn collaborators are always amazed when someone doesn’t know about Edgar Cahn (see bio below), but even his many supporters only know pieces of Edgar’s work. Although youth court is the primary focus of Cahn Collaborative efforts, Professor Cahn’s work with timebanking, co-production, systems change, and more will always be a part of the initiative.
Youth courts (juvenile justice and school-based) are a restorative justice disciplinary program and an academic program enriching school curriculum for K-12 youth. Youth Courts, sometimes called peer courts or teen courts, are trauma-informed, block the school-to-prison pipeline, reduce school suspensions, engage students in civic engagement, and build conflict-resolution skills. They empower youth, providing them with a wide range of academic skills - public speaking, critical thinking, problem solving, and consensus building. A prototypical co-production model (creating youth as resources), youth court under the Cahn Collaborative constitutes both educational and juvenile justice systems change.
David Trevaskis, PCSS Executive Secretary, Zooms with Edgar Cahn and his wife, Dr. Chris Gray, planning a program on systems change and youth court.
Edgar Cahn Memorial: Event held at the law school he founded.
The Cahn Collaborative is a loosely organized group of programs and individuals intended to both honor and perpetuates the life work of Edgar Cahn. Partners include Swarthmore College, the Widener Delaware Law School, the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, youth court programs in schools around the region, and more. The Cahn Collaborative is a multi-sector partnership between law firms, legal entities, K-12 educational institutions, community groups, law schools, higher education institutions, and philanthropy to memorialize the social justice activities of Edgar Cahn and to ensure they continue to be utilized to assist disadvantaged populations. Preserving his ideas and work is very important if disadvantaged populations are to successfully advance their lives.
The resolution was proposed by Council Member Mary M. Cheh
Resolution ACR24-0134, Effective from Feb 01, 2022 Published in DC Register Page 002038
"WHEREAS, Edgar’s work on Timebanking also led to his development of a far-reaching theory of systems change he called “Co-Production” that he offered as a new paradigm for human services, its theory and implications set forth in his book, “No More Throw Away People” on which he collaborated with Chris Gray;
References for co-production.
Read more about Edgar Cahn Here: Edgar Cahn Biography
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