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Young people cannot thrive without support and neither could we...

The Youth Advocacy Department (YAD) would like to thank the Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation for years of financial and intellectual support. The Shaw Foundation provided YAD with our first seed grant in 1993 and has supported us in countless ways ever since. There is no one associated with the Massachusetts juvenile justice system over the past twenty years who has been more influential than Executive Director Tom Coury. We are honored to be among the organizations Tom and the Shaw Foundation have chosen to assist.

We also would like to give special recognition to our partners, the U.S. Human Rights Fund, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, for providing vital support to the Youth Advocacy Department during this critical period of growth and transition.

The U.S. Human Rights Fund (USHRF) has supported YAD’s advocacy efforts to use a Human Rights Framework to advocate for smarter sentencing practices of children and youths in Massachusetts. Thanks to generous funding from USHRF, the YAD team now includes a policy advocate who is working on drafting and building support for new legislation that would eliminate the imposition of life without parole sentences on juveniles in this state.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has been instrumental in the creation of YAD. In 2008 the MacArthur Foundation selected Massachusetts, led by YAD, as a member of the Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network (JIDAN), a coalition of eight states working together to develop national models for the delivery of effective advocacy for poor juvenile defendants. JIDAN benefits from the inspirational leadership of the National Juvenile Defender Center.

With the support of JIDAN, YAD has made great strides in its efforts to provide increased and improved leadership, training and support to an ever more diverse, collaborative, and effective juvenile defense bar across Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts delegation to JIDAN includes: Chief Justice Michael Edgerton, Senator Karen E. Spilka, DYS Commissioner Jane Tewksbury, DYS Deputy Commissioner Ed Dolan, Former Chief Justice Martha Grace, Administrative Office of the Juvenile Court James Morton, Esq., Director of the Office of Youth Development Glen Daly, MBA General Counsel Martin Healy, Vice President for Program of The Boston Foundation Robert Lewis, Jr., Erica Cushna, Esq., Director of the Louis Brown Peace Institute Tina Chery, CPCS Chief Counsel William J. Leahy, Office of the Commissioner of Probation Nicola (Nikki) Pangonis, Esq., Director, Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities Maureen Ferris, Director of the Research and Policy Analysis Division of the Office of Grants and Research at the Executive Office of Public Safety & Security Marc Germain, and from the Office of Senator Karen Spilka Mary Ann Padien, Esq.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has provided essential funding for the creation of the Transformational Representation Information System (TRIS), a web-based case management system that, when fully implemented, will enhance communication between all members of a client’s legal team, as well as allow for long-term tracking of demographic data and case outcomes. TRIS is being developed with the expert assistance of the Northeastern University Institute on Race and Justice and DataBase Designs Associates, Inc.

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