Global Youth Justice, Inc.

Global Youth Justice, Inc. champions the expansion of Youth-Led and Volunteer-Driven Youth Justice and Juvenile Justice Diversion Programs called Youth/Teen/Peer/Student Court, Youth Peer Court, and Peer Jury. Historic numbers of Teen Justice Volunteers, primarily ages 12-18 -- make it possible for 2,050+ communities, schools, and justice settings in 47 USA States, 30+ Tribes, DC, and 12 Counties on 5 continents to give their youth in trouble for crimes, offenses, and violations a 2nd, and even 3rd chance.

These Youth/Teen/Peer/Student Court, Youth Peer Court, and Peer Jury Diversion Programs are the most replicated Juvenile Justice and Youth Justice Diversion Program in America by 10:1 Ratio, since record keeping began in 1997. And, over these past 25 years of these local volunteer-driven diversion programs scaling locally without ever being directly funded by the federal government, they are the #1 Essential Youth Civic Engagement Program in America, as these volunteer youth, to include former youthful offenders, volunteer year-round to provide diversion services to their peers for real crimes and misdemeanors.

The Global Youth Justice Movement is a text-book example of a local grass-roots volunteer-driven "scalable model" to strengthen juvenile justice, youth justice and criminal justice systems around the globe. These rapidly expanding local volunteer-driven diversion programs are uniquely an American Inclusive Youth Democracy Strategy that utilized a Young People Centered Justice Approach for Large Scale Local Replication of a Volunteer Peer-to-Peer Diversion Program. And, the public across a wide swatch of disciplines and fields on a local, state, and national level are supportive -- if not enthusiastic, as demonstrated by the wide scale implementation in comparison to any other juvenile diversion programs, which still is only in about 10% of communities, schools, tribes and justice settings.

This uniquely America approach has now spread to 12 other countries, with Germany and The Netherlands, having implemented dozens of local programs, and in a wide range of settings. Uniquely also, there are more than 15 different types of agencies and organizations in America that operate between 25 and 300+ of these local diversion programs, and most often, it is up to local elected officials, with the exception of a few states. Examples include nonprofits, police, schools, district attorney, public defenders, youth bureaus, sheriff, civic, law related education, tribes, bar associations, formal courts, probation, and others.

The first country or federal level project in the world was launched in 1997 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and called the Federal Youth Court Program. It was a rare discretionary internal staff project at the U.S. Department of Justice, that was designed with a 10 year plan and managed internally from 1997 until 2008. Instead of using the typical 3 year demonstration grants to seed it, a public domain large scale training and technical assistance approach costing about 10% was designed. It was at USDOJ. that this volunteer-driven diversion program approach was designed. This uniquely American Inclusive Youth Democracy Strategy, that utilized a Young People Centered Justice Approach, for Large Scale Local Replication of a Volunteer Peer-to-Peer Diversion Program resulted in 1200+ local Youth/Teen/Student/Peer Court and Peer Jury Diversion Programs by 2008.

USDOJ staff member Scott Peterson had designed and managed it for its entirely, with strong support by both the Clinton and Bush Appointees at USDOJ. By 2008, four federal agencies were sending USDOJ to support a $1 million discretionary annual budget. USDOJ staff member Scott Peterson left in 2008, and took it with him, and has transition it from an LLC from 2009-2015, Nonprofit from 2015-2018, and 501c3 Charitable Organization since 2019 -- all the while keeping it Public Domain.

Global Youth Justice, Inc. has Headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts now at The NonProfit Center with 50 Social Justice 501c3 Organization, and there are now over 2,000+ of these Youth-Led Diversion Programs, and Global Youth Justice, Inc. as expanded to include launching the World's 1st Global @16andVOTE Program to Lower Voting Ages to 16 around the world in 2012; Global @Campaign4TREES Project Proving Grants for Juvenile Justice System Involved Youth to Plant Trees in Groups for Mandated Service Hours; and on the 20th Anniversary of September 11th in 2021, we designed a new Annual 9/11 Memorial Co-Led by Youth and Adults called 1st Annual 9/11 DAY Flag of Honor Across America Memorials, which was selected as 1 of only 5 US Federal Project to Launch on the 20th Anniversary, and took place in 60 USA Communities, and was the largest national multi-site project in 2021, and one of the largest ever and is expanding further and received multiple additional year federal sponsorship.

Global Youth Justice, Inc. will be launching a 5 Year Expansion Plan and 1st Global Youth Justice Month in October, 2022 -- and has more than 20 Projects and Plans scheduled in the Implementation and Planning Phase as the Global Youth Justice Movement mobilizes youth from all over to do good in the World.