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| Street Youth Legal Services lawyer Johanna MacDonald in her office at JFCY |
Why
the interest in Youth?
While studying Criminology, Johanna read
many statistics about the high peak of criminal behaviour for young men. She
also learned that the likelihood of someone committing a crime can be predicted
as early as age four. She has always thought the best way to reduce crime is to
prevent it, and by providing support at an early age. At Carlton, Johanna
volunteered with a Rowing programme for at-risk youth. From this she realized the
necessity for increased support for older youth, such as teenagers and those in
their twenties.
So
what do you do as a Street Youth Lawyer?
Johanna represents high-risk and homeless
youth between the ages of sixteen and twenty four. She visits shelters to see
if there are youth in need of legal advice or to give seminars about employment
rights, police interactions, and family law. Johanna loves being a youth lawyer
because she deals with many areas of law such as, immigration, housing, and
criminal, to name a few.
What
Issues are Street Youth faced with today?
Johanna acknowledges that at-risk and
homeless youth are heavily stigmatized and often have a negative view of the
law. She says this is often because the primary interaction these youth have is
with law enforcement. Johanna is working hard to educate youth on the
opportunities that the law can provide them, for example in cases involving
sole custody of a child or applications for compensation.
Should
the law be reformed?
Johanna says the law does provide support
to youth, but that there is still much to improve. In her opinion the law often
treats at-risk and homeless youth as simply an “emergency problem”. She thinks youth need better continued
support, especially because there is such a high population of homeless youth
who have been Crown Wards or have left child welfare. She said that the while
the average youth receives financial support from parents or guardians up to
age twenty seven, the maximum age a Crown Ward can receive financial support to
is age twenty one. She would like to see the law changed so that the
eligibility for financial support to Wards of the Crown is extended to age
twenty four.
What’s
next for Johanna?
On February 29th she is hosting
a meeting at Queen West Community Health Centre with police and law enforcers
about better ways to effectively interact with Youth. She hinted that the name may involve ‘Hot Shot’, which is a
Police term for a situation that demands all officers drop what they are doing
and immediately head to the scene of the crime! Keep reading the blog for
updates on the great work Johanna and the rest of the JFCY lawyers are doing
for Youth.
PLE Team Member and Volunteer Danielle Skuy interviewed Johanna and wrote this post.
