Summer youth volunteer program begins fourth year
The Summer Youth Volunteer Program welcomed 58 youths July 10 to participate in the program sponsored by the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families, Division of Family Services, Independent Living Program. The Summer Youth Volunteer Program is designed to introduce teenagers, with the focus on those in foster care, to the working world through hands-on experience working with various judicial officers, court staff, agencies and private law firms across the state. Participants are awarded credits for volunteer community service hours. The program has grown dramatically since its inception four summers ago, from three participants during its first summer to the 58 teenagers volunteering this year.
The program offers a valuable opportunity to develop real-life work skills. The Division of Family Services, working in conjunction with the AOC, places many foster care youths in the program, including those in the Foster Care Program’s independent living program and those who are about to graduate from high school. The program allows the teenagers to gain work experience in a safe and structured environment, to learn resume writing and job interview skills, and to gain a behind-the-scenes understanding of how the judicial system works.
“The kids are excited and happy to work in a legal setting,” said Christina Harrison, director of the Delaware Family Court Appointed Special Advocates program and a new Summer Youth Volunteer Program volunteer coordinator for Sussex County. Harrison hopes the teenagers will gain wisdom and inspiration from their experience while interacting with positive role models.
Participants are placed with participating courts, agencies or law firms and perform administrative tasks. For example, teenagers working for the AOC’s Judicial Information Center, which provides technology and information services to the Judicial Branch, will have the opportunity to help set up and deliver computers to court users.
Robin Jenkins, manager of the Summer Youth Volunteer Program, is particularly excited by the number of nonjudicial agencies that have decided for the first time this summer to open their doors to students in the program. Organizations participating in the Summer Youth Volunteer Program include the Delaware Supreme Court; the Superior Court; the Court of Common Pleas; the Family Court; the AOC, including JIC and the Office of State Court Collections Enforcement; the Department of Justice; the Public Defender’s Office; Capitol Police; the Child Death, Near Death and Stillbirth Commission; and private law firms. Program participants benefit from support offered by local businesses, which include Colonial Parking, Dunkin Donuts, Seasons Pizza and Shop Rite. The program ends Aug. 17.
For more information, contact Amy Quinlan, Administrative Office of the Courts, at Amy.Quinlan@state.de.us or 302-255-0098.
