Support for Youth Advocates During a National Emergency

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Our youth advocates must continue to receive as much support as possible from program staff during a national emergency such as COVID-19. Two years ago, Juvenile Law Center established an emergency fund for our Youth Advocacy Program so our social workers can ensure that we continue to meet the immediate needs of our youth advocates.   

Here are some of the supportive measures we are taking: 

1. Reviewing measures each youth advocate should take to stay healthy. 
2. Paying all youth advocates for cancelled meetings. 
3. Identifying the best way to deliver their compensation.  
4. Conducting weekly workshops and individual meetings virtually to stay connected.
5. Verifying how each youth advocate can continue participating. 
6. Compensating for all meeting time. 
7. Updating all forms of contact with each youth advocate.  
8. Placing typed notices outside of our office doors with instructions on how to contact us.  
9. Addressing specialized transportation needs for each youth advocate.  
10. Continuing supervision and remote work with our social work interns and fellows.  

Cathy Moffa is a manager and Marcía Hopkins is senior manager for the Youth Advocacy Program and Sue Mangold is a chief executive officer at Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

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