Washington, DC, November 2, 2001 — The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) is pleased to announce that the 2001 Clara Shortridge Foltz Award goes to the Youth Advocacy Project (YAP) of the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Roxbury, Massachusetts. The Youth Advocacy Project’s mission is to protect and advance the legal and human rights of children and to promote their healthy development through active community partnerships.

This award is given biennially to a public defender program or defense delivery system as a commendation for its outstanding achievement in the provision of indigent defense services. The achievement may be the result of an effort by the entire program, a division, a branch or a special project. This award, co-sponsored by NLADA and the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, is named for the founder of the nation's public defender system.

"The excellence of the Youth Advocacy Project’s program is evident in the quality of representation it provides indigent youth aged 12 to 17 charged in delinquency matters, its exceptional involvement in the Roxbury community and its commitment to reform the institutions that serve over-policed, underserved children in the Roxbury and Dorchester communities of Boston," said Ken Smith, executive director of YouthBuild Boston. "Since its inception in 1992, YAP has implemented a multidisciplinary approach to its juvenile justice practice with tremendous impact on the children, families and courts it serves. It has no equal in Boston and is viewed as a paradigm for defender programs nationally."

The Committee for Public Counsel Service (CPCS) established the Youth Advocacy Project in 1992 as an initiative to assign experienced trial attorneys to defend juveniles charged with serious offenses and who faced adult incarceration. While representing these youths, attorneys recognized the numerous missed opportunities for intervention and diversion. Expanding on this finding, the Youth Advocacy Project broadened its representation and advocacy to include youths with lesser and fewer offenses. In 1993, with private foundation support, it became a community-based project with an innovative approach to advocating for youths in the courtroom and the community. In addition to legal advocacy and training, the Youth Advocacy Project now offers clinical assessment, service planning, referrals and social service consultation to high-risk youths. It partners with local organizations, schools and programs to develop new services and identify existing resources that meet the needs of young people in Boston’s neighborhoods.

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The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), founded in 1911, is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoting all of its resources to advocating equal access to justice for all Americans. NLADA champions effective legal assistance for people who cannot afford counsel, serves as a collective voice for both civil legal services and public defense services throughout the nation and provides a wide range of services and benefits to its individual and organizational members.