Youth Justice Team
Most recent Youth Justice resource updates
September 28, 2022: New resource:
These and all other Youth Justice resources are also listed on the menu in the left sidebar of this page.
About BayLegal’s Youth Justice Team
The Youth Justice Team believes that young people should be treated with respect and have the resources they need to meet their goals. To that end, we engage in civil legal representation, social work, community collaborations, and systematic advocacy, in partnership with the young people we serve. We provide civil legal services to young people from the ages 13-26 to prevent justice system entry/reentry
- Entry into Foster Care and Foster Care Benefits
- Education (special education, enrollment, partial credit recovery, school discipline defense)
- Guardianships
- Public Benefits and SSI
- Immigration
- Family Law
Our attorneys work with youth across the Bay Area. In each county, our work takes on different forms and priorities:
Contra Costa County
The Youth Justice team serves young people in Contra Costa experiencing homelessness, incarceration, or trafficking. We also help young people coming out of juvenile hall get back to school and stabilize once back at home with their community.
Santa Clara County
We partner with the Bill Wilson Center (BWC) in Santa Clara County, supporting young people under 18 and young adults at BWC’s emergency shelters, drop-in centers, and transitional housing programs who don’t have a safe caregiver and assisting older youth with a variety of issues, including public benefits and name and gender marker changes.
Alameda County
Our attorneys and social worker work with teenagers and young adults who have been involved with Alameda County Juvenile Probation. They work with other service providers to support youth whether their juvenile case is current or happened years ago.
We also support youth who use drop-in and residential programs at DreamCatcher and Covenant House youth shelters in Oakland, providing legal and social supports for young people under the age of 18 who don’t have a safe caregiver and young adults who want to remove obstacles to their independence.
Bay Area-Wide Team
We are also available to talk to youth in San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, and Napa Counties. Our team social worker helps secure essential services and helps youth plan for safety in their communities. Maighna Jain, our Youth Justice Managing Attorney, coordinates this regional work.
Outcomes
Youth who successfully receive housing, medical, education support and more through advocacy by BayLegal are significantly less likely to reenter justice systems.
With BayLegal’s assistance, youth are appropriately supported by community resources such as proper educational placement, access to mental health counseling, economic stability through government benefits programs – and therefore no longer needs the continued supervision of the juvenile justice system.