Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law, Children and Family Justice Center

Established in 1992 with Foundation support, Northwestern University’s Children and Family Justice Center provides legal representation for individual children, advances juvenile justice system reform, and teaches and mentors the next generation of juvenile justice legal and policy advocates. Under Illinois Models for Change, the Center coordinated system reform efforts to improve access to counsel and the quality of representation for court-involved youth. This grant supports the Center’s continuing efforts to ensure access to legal counsel at all decision points in the justice system and to advance fairer and more just sentencing practices for youth subject to extreme and non-discretionary sentences.

The Children and Family Justice Center (the Center), a division of the Northwestern University School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic, was created with Foundation support in 1992. Its distinctive multidisciplinary approach integrates providing legal representation to individual children, advancing juvenile justice system reform, and helping to teach and mentor the next generation of juvenile justice legal and policy advocates. The grant will help secure the Center’s leadership role in juvenile justice reform in Illinois and nationally, enabling it to establish an endowment; design and implement a strategic communications and development plan; and improve its technology infrastructure.

Created with Foundation support in 1992, the Children and Family Justice Center, part of Northwestern University School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic, undertakes significant work in legal education, public policy, and justice reform. Under Illinois Models for Change, the Center coordinates system reform efforts to improve access to counsel and the quality of representation for juvenile justice-involved youth. It will use this grant to improve juvenile defender services statewide by maintaining the Illinois Juvenile Defender Resource Center and Network; pursue post-dispositional advocacy and policy reform; and develop materials and training to help youth and their families know their rights and responsibilities.

To coordinate Illinois' work on juvenile indigent defense and participation in the Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network as a part of Illinois Models for Change.

To support the Models for Change initiative (over two years).