Contributed by Alysyn Thibault,
Executive Director of Anchorage Youth Court
For over 30 years, Anchorage Youth Court has served the Municipality of Anchorage as a juvenile diversionary program. Our AYC members are local teens from grades 7-12 who complete a class about basic legal principles and practices before being sworn in as members to work in sentencing hearings as bailiffs, clerks, attorneys, and judges. Our members meet monthly to participate in activities designed to provide a broad perspective of the judicial system and restorative justice through workshops, mock sentencings, and guest speakers from the legal community.
Defendants benefit from our program because they are entirely represented by other youth in Anchorage. All attorneys, judges, clerks, and bailiffs are our youth members who advocate in the interest of justice. Further, youth defendants are afforded a chance, in a court hearing by trained local youth, to resolve their legal problems without receiving a formal juvenile record. Our community receives valuable service for wrongs committed while decreasing the rate of juvenile incarceration. And importantly, youth restore themselves to their families and the community at large to become the most successful version of themselves. The numbers reveal the effectiveness of our program. A study that compared the one-year rate of re-referral (the percentage of youth who re-offend within one year), found that AYC defendants reoffended at a rate of 16%, while youth referred through the traditional court system reoffended at a rate of 40%.
But behind those numbers are stories and lives and experience of real youth. A defendant recently wrote that “Anchorage Youth Court put a voice onto what I was saying, and I finally felt heard…I appreciate all the staff and youth of AYC for taking care of me.” Another thanked AYC for “helping me choose a better path in life and hearing me out. I will forever be thankful and will do better in the future.” Some of these defendants even choose to take the AYC class to become members and bring their experiences full circle as attorneys and judges themselves.
AYC benefits more than just our defendants, too. Our youth members are powerful, mature, and empowering young people who take initiative to uplift their peers. This year alone, our youth members have volunteered over 3,100 hours of service in court, trainings, and other support services to their community. Ted Madsen, one alumnus, wrote that “my time volunteering at AYC gave me invaluable experiences and life sills that certainly contribute to my success today. I know first-hand the impact it makes on the Anchorage community and all the youth who participate—members and defendants alike.” Anchorage Youth Court continues to have that positive impact on our youth members and staff alike. Our Bar Association President, Lillian Yang writes, “without a doubt, Anchorage Youth Court has been one of the most meaningful experiences I ever had in high school.
I am incredibly grateful for being in a room with so many other passionate youths while given the opportunity to make a real impact, widening my self-advocacy skills and understanding of the world. Because of youth court, I am committed to giving back to my community no matter what career I chose.”
In the coming year, AYC hopes to make our program even stronger than it already is. Through partnerships with local organizations, we hope to include mental health and employment support services as valuable sentencing options to our defendants. We also plan to work with other youth courts statewide to rewrite our curriculum to include trauma-informed practices to support restorative justice work. While we accommodate our increasing caseload post-pandemic, these shifts continue AYC’s legacy. We are not only one of the original youth courts, but one of the most effective and modeled programs in the country.
We need community support to make these shifts happen and continue to benefit youth in and out of our program. On Thursday, December 8th, from 6-8pm in the Wilda Marston Theater at the Loussac Library, we invite people throughout the region to attend Faces of AYC, an in-person learning and fundraising event. At this event, we swear in our new members and celebrate them with their families. We hear from alumni and community members about our program’s impact. Youth members conduct a mock-sentencing to showcase what we really do with all the city. And there’s fun, too: We will conduct a raffle with prizes from many local businesses! We hope you will join us to celebrate our work.
You can learn more about what we do at anchorageyouthcourt.org.