Breaking Barriers Initiative: Enhancing Youth Outcomes Through Access to Civil Legal Services

The Hamilton County Public Defender Juvenile Division’s (HCPDJD) Breaking Barriers Initiative will expand the capacity of the County’s holistic, multi-disciplinary defense delivery model to provide high-quality juvenile defense for youth involved in the juvenile court system.  The project will improve case outcomes, reduce recidivism, and promote the successful transition into adulthood for court-involved youth in two Hamilton County localities with high delinquency referrals and high poverty levels, and youth who are detained pending resolution of their cases.  HCPDJD will engage a civil legal services attorney, student interns, and national experts to ensure participating youth have access to education and safe, stable housing, and address collateral consequences, through civil legal services; provide juvenile-specific attorney training, including ten community educational forums in the targeted localities of Price Hill and the Village of Lockland; develop written community education resources; and develop a data tracking system.