Legal Leaders Workshops for Newcomer Youth
Newcomers often experience unique legal challenges. Faced with unfamiliar laws and legal processes, and potentially unaware of their legal rights or mechanisms for enforcement, many newcomers also experience language barriers when seeking access to legal help. Newcomer youth often have a special and trusted relationship with their parents and other adult family members. They speak their maternal language, but often have stronger English language skills than their adult family members; they are trusted intermediaries who often find themselves acting as information providers and interpreters for their families. This can be a very stressful situation for newcomer youth, who are confronted with more adult-appropriate legal problems than their Canadian-born peers.
Legal Leaders workshops focus on developing the communication and leadership skills of newcomer youth, providing them with some key knowledge in areas of human rights, employment and housing law, while supporting their efforts to direct family members to appropriate sources of legal information and assistance. This 6-8 session justice education program can be implemented in schools or community-based organizations.
For more information about this program, check out our Facilitator’s Guide.