Historically the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the Massachusetts public defender agency, had focused on representing adults in Superior Court. The agency, however, started to recognize the importance of representation in juvenile court in the 1980s with a one-person initiative, the Juvenile Law Advocacy Program (JLAP), spearheaded by Public Defender Jay Blitzman. The goal of the JLAP was to create a modest CPCS presence in the juvenile court and to develop training for the private bar. Blitzman began representing juveniles charged with homicide and met with juvenile defenders around the state.
By the early 1990s, children began receiving harsher sentences, particularly in Roxbury. In 1992, Blitzman and JLAP moved to Roxbury, JLAP was renamed the Youth Advocacy Project (YAP), and Josh Dohan joined YAP as the first staff attorney. YAP soon recognized numerous missed opportunities for intervention and diversion from court involvement and subsequently broadened its representation and advocacy to include youth with less serious offenses. The team started taking cases in all the juvenile sessions in Boston. YAP continued to be involved with statewide training and policy advocacy. YAP's development was heavily influenced by the community orientation and multidisciplinary team of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem.
At the same time that YAP was building a caseload of serious juvenile offenses, it started to develop relationships with community organizations and private foundations. Tom Coury of the Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation played a crucial role by providing YAP with seed money and introducing it to other foundations. By 1993, through the assistance of the Shaw Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, and the Boston Foundation, YAP had developed a multidisciplinary advocacy model that incorporated legal services, social service assessment and advocacy, and community outreach.
CPCS Chief Counsel William Leahy decided that YAP should become a permanent unit of CPCS and went to the legislature asking for a budget line in 1994. The next year, YAP became a full-fledged unit of CPCS and social service provider Christine Fiechter and community liaison Andrea Goode-Litthcut, formerly grant-funded employees, became state employees. YAP continued to expand its staff through foundation support, and when each addition proved to be successful, moved to put it on the state payroll.
YAP has continued to grow and now serves its clients, CPCS, and the Massachusetts Juvenile Justice System in a variety of ways. Two of its most significant contributions have been the formalization of education advocacy and statewide training. As YAP staff represented hundreds of children through the mid nineties, it became painfully evident that approximately eighty percent of them were failing in school. In many cases the primary issue was that the school system was not providing appropriate educational services. The EdLaw Project, an initiative of YAP and the Children's Law Center was founded in 2000, specifically to advocate for those services. YAP now has three full-time attorneys providing legal representation for youth involved in school disciplinary and special education issues. This initiative is still supported entirely by grants and private donations. In 2003, YAP formalized its training function by creating the Juvenile Defense Network (JDN). Led by Wendy Wolf, a lawyer with over twenty years of experience, JDN is a support network that provides trainings, resources guides, and expert legal advice to juvenile defense attorneys throughout the state.
YAP now has a staff of five delinquency attorneys, three education lawyers, two Forensic Case Managers, two psychologists, a community outreach coordinator, a Juvenile Defense Network Coordinator, an administrative assistant, an operations manager, a program manager, a Community Notebooks Coordinator, and an executive director. YAP also has several AmeriCorps volunteers serving in a variety of important functions.
YAD has now expanded to include an office in Worcester as well as a staff of five delinquency attorneys, three education lawyers, two Forensic Case Managers, two psychologists, a community outreach coordinator, a Juvenile Defense Network Coordinator, an administrative assistant, an operations manager, a program manager, a Community Notebooks Coordinator, and an executive director. YAP also has several AmeriCorps volunteers serving in a variety of important functions.
On October 1, 2009 the Youth Advocacy Project (YAP) officially became part of the Youth Advocacy Department (YAD)! YAD is the newly-formed juvenile division of the Massachusetts public defender agency, the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS). With the formation of YAD, CPCS will enhance juvenile representation and make quality, comprehensive legal services available to youth throughout the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts. With offices in Fall River, Hyannis, Lowell, Quincy, Roxbury, Salem, Somerville, Springfield and Worcester, YAD will lead, train, and support the entire Massachusetts juvenile defense bar. As CPCS Chief Counsel William Leahy stated, “This is an important milestone in the evolution of the Committee for Public Counsel Services. I am confident that creation of the Youth Advocacy Department, so long envisioned, will elevate the quality of representation that CPCS provides to its clients."
Awards & Recognition
The Youth Advocacy Department and its staff have received numerous awards and recognitions over the years. Below is a list of awards and recognitions given to YAD, and its staff. There is also information about the Jay D. Blitzman Award for Youth Advocacy, presented each year by the Youth Advocacy Department to an exemplary community leader.
2008 Women of Justice Award
In December 2008, YAD's Program Manager Priscilla Duffy was the recipient of the Women of Justice Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Award. This honor is in partnership with the Women’s Bar Association, and the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers. The award is given to individuals who have made meaningful and inspiring contributions in the fields of social justice and advocacy.
2008 Youthie Award
In March 2008, the Youth advocacy department was the first recipient of the Youthie Award for achievement in advocacy and networking from the Medical Foundation, an organization working with nonprofits and community organizations to advance public health and medical research.
2007 Boston Bar Association's John Brooks Award for Outstanding Public Service:
In September of 2007,Cecely Reardon, Attorney in Charge of the YAD Roxbury Office, was awarded with the Boston Bar Association John Brooks award at the annual meeting luncheon. Cecely has become a public policy leader for CPCS, for Massachusetts and for the country. She represents YAD and CPCS on every available committee which deals with juvenile justice issues, including the Teen Prostitution Prevention Project and the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative. She serves as vice chair of the Governor’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, and she is the Commonwealth’s representative on the National Coalition for Juvenile Justice.
2007 Massachusetts Bar Association's Defender of the Year
In 2007, Director of Training Wendy Wolf was awarded with the Massachusetts' Bar Association's Defender of the Year award at the annual Access to Justice luncheon. Wendy was awarded for her contributions to the field of juvenile justice.
2006 Massachusetts House of Representatives and Boston City Council Recognition
Jenny Chou, former EdLaw Project Coordinator, received awards from the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Boston City Council for her work with the Jamaica Plain Parent Organizing Project (JPPOP). JPPOP is a grassroots parent organization representing the interests of special needs students in the Boston Public School system.
2001 CPCS Extraordinary Performance Awards
In 2001, Antoinette DaGraca, Administrative Assistant, and Anna Bulkin, former Social Work Coordinator were awarded the Committee for Public Counsel Services Award for Extraordinary Performance.
2001 President's Award from the National Association of Sentencing Advocates
In 2001, Christine Fiechter, former Assistant Director of the Youth advocacy department received the National Alliance of Sentencing Advocates' President's Award for dedication and service to the organization.
2001 Clara Shortridge Foltz Award
In November 2001, the Youth advocacy department was the first juvenile defender agency to receive the Clara Shortridge Foltz Award for outstanding achievement in public defense delivery from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the nation's largest and oldest public defender membership agency.
2000 Project for the Future of Equal Justice
In 2000, the Project for the Future of Equal Justicelisted the Youth Advocacy Department as one of 27 examples of holistic advocacy programs in the US. The Project for the Future of Equal Justice is a joint initiative of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and the Center for Law and Social Policy. Its mission is to strengthen and expand the provision of civil legal assistance to low-income people through the collaborative efforts of a community of advocates that includes legal services programs, the private bar, social service and community organizations, law schools, courts, advocacy groups at the state and national levels, and poor people as advocates for themselves. The Project provides a national forum for coordination and planning, and generates and supports the development of national capacities to meet the evolving needs of equal justice advocates.
Indigent Defense 2000
In June 2000, the Youth advocacy department was chosen by the U.S. Department of Justice as one of the few juvenile defender agencies in the country to participate in Indigent Defense 2000, a two-day working conference in Washington, DC that focused on promoting relationships between the indigent defense bar and other key stakeholders in the justice system.
1999 Ultimate Advocacy: A Defender's Guide to Strategic Management
In March 1999, the Vera Institute of Justice recognized the Youth Advocacy Department as a model program, with particular attention to its use of community-based strategies.
1999 Joe Murphy Award
In September 1999, Anna Bulkin, the Youth advocacy department's former Social Work Coordinator, received the Joe Murphy Award for outstanding social work performance from the Committee of Public Counsel Services.
1998 Massachusetts Bar Association Access to Justice Award
In 1998, Joshua Dohan, Esq., Director of the Youth advocacy department, received the Massachusetts Bar Association's Access to Justice Award.
1998 Innovative Approaches to Juvenile Indigent Defense
In December 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice recognized the Youth advocacy department as one of the seven most promising model juvenile indigent defense programs in the country. YAD is profiled in the Justice Department's Juvenile Justice Bulletin, Innovative Approaches to Juvenile Indigent Defense. Click hereto read the report on YAD.
Jay D. Blitzman Award for Youth Advocacy
Established in honor of YAD's founder, the Jay D. Blitzman Award for Youth Advocacy is presented annually to a person who has demonstrated a commitment to juvenile rights, which is the hallmark of Judge Blitzman's long career as an advocate. The award honors an advocate who has exhibited both extraordinary dedication and excellent performance to assure that children accused of criminal conduct, or otherwise at risk, are treated fairly and with dignity in the courtroom, in the community, and in the custody of the state.
Judge Blitzman spent 20 years as a public defender. No one has been a more zealous advocate on behalf of indigent defendants. At the same time, Judge Blitzman worked tirelessly to educate the legal community regarding the importance of providing high quality representation to children accused of criminal conduct. Judge Blitzman's twenty-year crusade on behalf of children and their advocates culminated with the creation of the Youth advocacy department in 1992. In founding the Youth advocacy department, Judge Blitzman showed us that children can be best represented by combining legal services with a variety of human services.
The Youth advocacy Department's methods reflect Judge Blitzman’s belief that much delinquent and/or criminal conduct is preventable through appropriate family or community intervention. He demonstrated that lawyers, working in conjunction with other community members, can assist in rehabilitation and crime prevention. The success of the Project has proven his thesis that zealous legal advocacy is a necessary first step in the rehabilitation of court-involved young people. In recognition of this achievement, this award honors people who have excelled in furthering collaboration between courtroom and community advocates.
The honoree should exemplify Judge Blitzman's philosophy that everyone in the community has a role to play in helping young people grow into happy and productive adults. The work of the honoree should also reflect the zealousness and perseverance that marked Jay Blitzman's singular career as an advocate. For that reason, lawyers, social service providers, psychologists, teachers, youth-workers, medical professionals, parents, private citizens and any others who exemplify this spirit are eligible for the Jay D. Blitzman Award for Youth Advocacy.
Blitzman Award Recipients
2009 James Corbo
2008 Kristyn Snyer
2007 Richard Bowen
2006 Glenn Daly
2006 Laurie Jo Wallace
2006 Mo Barboza
2005 Patricia Downey
2004 Lael Chester, Citizens for Juvenile Justice (Boston)
2004 Robin Dahlberg, ACLU (New York)
2004 Sam Williams, Youth Opportunity Boston (Roxbury)
2003 Jenny Chou, EdLaw Project
2002 Second Thoughts
2001 Ken King
2000 Habiba Davis
1999 Scott Busconi
1998 Tony Vuong
1997 Children's Law Center of Massachusetts
1996 Ernest Hughes, Jr.