FAQ

Youth Represent ensures that young people affected by the criminal legal system are afforded every opportunity to live lives of dignity, self-fulfillment, and engagement in their communities. Founded in 2006, we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides free and comprehensive legal services to youth in New York. We also advocate for policy reforms that shrink the criminal system and expand opportunities for young people.

Youth Represent levels the playing field for young people who are being illegally and unfairly discriminated against as they pursue employment, housing, education, and stable family lives. A conviction, an arrest, or even a simple interaction with police can have lasting consequences for young people, threatening the stability they need to thrive. When our legal system creates barriers to success, we use direct legal representation and zealous advocacy to empower youth to leave the stigma of a criminal record behind.

Youth Represent utilizes a diverse approach to achieving true systems change on behalf of youth.

• Through our Direct Services, we provide comprehensive, free, direct legal representation, to empower young people to overcome job denials, remain in their homes when they are facing eviction, become a loving presence in the lives of their children through custody or visitation rights, go to college, and avoid incarceration.
• These direct services inform our Policy Reform work, like “Raise the Age” and the “Fair Chance Act”, where we advance a systemic reform agenda to expand opportunities and justice for youth of color while putting the voices of system-involved youth at the center of these campaigns.

Youth Represent works with system-involved youth 26 and under, with the average age being 20. Because of historic and institutional racism, our clients are overwhelmingly youth of color: 79% are Black or Latinx. All our clients are low-income with 25% living in subsidized housing and 16% in shelters, residential homes, or supportive housing

If you are arrested and cannot afford a lawyer, you will be provided one at no cost. However, as soon as your criminal case is over, you no longer have access to a free lawyer. You face a host of collateral consequences from the arrest, including being denied employment, evicted from housing, and excluded from education. Without a free lawyer, young people face these challenges alone. This is where Youth Represent comes in: we provide holistic representation and advocacy to hundreds of youth each year in all of the areas where they encounter legal barriers—and we do so in the communities where our clients live.

We are community lawyers. Which means, we bring Know Your Rights workshops and direct reentry legal services to young people at our partner organizations, including job training programs, mental health clinics and shelters, settlement houses, alternatives to incarceration programs, and LGBTQ centers. We travel to community-based partner organizations to meet young people where they are rather than making them travel to our office.

Of course. Youth Represent is proud of how we use every dollar donated to most effectively and impactfully support youth. Our 2023 990 Form, our 2022 990 Form, and our 2021 990 Form.

Yes! Every donation, from our monthly donors to those who give to our annual campaign or donate professional experience matter. We know every donation, regardless of size, represents the trust, support, and faith you are placing in Youth Represent that we will use your financial support effectively and efficiently to bring about the greatest impact on the lives of young people. We are ranked the highest transparency rating of “Platinum” from Guidestar.