Trainings & Workshops
Knowledge is power. Our workshops equip young people and community partners with the legal insight and practical tools needed to protect rights, remove barriers, and expand opportunity.
Elevated Minds
Youth Represent presents the Elevated Minds Workshop – a dynamic, youth-centered experience designed to empower young people ages 14-25 to think critically, communicate effectively, and move with purpose in real-world situations. The workshops blend lived experience, peer leadership, and practical skill-building to support youth, particularly those impacted by the justice system, in building confidence, accountability, and self-awareness. Grounded in a non-clinical, credible messenger approach, Elevated Minds creates a safe and relatable space where participants can openly discuss challenges such as anger, peer-pressure, decision-making, and life direction. The workshop focuses on shifting mindset from reacting to thinking, and from surviving to growing.
Know Your Rights
Young people are better positioned to protect their futures when they understand their rights and the systems that impact them. Our Know Your Rights workshops provide clear, practical legal information to help system-impacted youth navigate barriers related to employment, criminal records, police interactions, as well as the collateral consequences of court involvement.
Our workshops are interactive, accessible, and grounded in real-life scenarios. Sessions are tailored to each partner organization and focus on the legal protections most relevant to participants, including the Fair Chance Act, criminal record discrimination, and rights during police encounters.
Workshops are typically held on-site at partner organizations to reduce barriers to participation and build trust in familiar spaces. In addition to legal education, workshops are designed as an entry point into Youth Represent’s legal services. All participants have the opportunity to engage in a confidential intake with our legal team for direct legal representation, social work support, and referrals to other services as appropriate.
Staff Trainings
Front-line staff working with system-impacted youth are often the first to identify when a young person may be facing reentry barriers.. We provide tailored trainings for workforce development programs, alternative-to-incarceration providers, settlement houses, schools, shelters, and other youth-serving organizations across New York.
Our sessions deepen understanding of the New York criminal legal system and offer practical strategies to identify and respond to the unique needs of system-impacted youth.
