Charioke Marathon November 2009

Organised by Refugee Action,
Just for Kids Law joined in chorus with Children of the Andes and Food Chain to sing our way through 10 hours of karaoke classics. A huge thanks to Melissa Reardon, Rebecca Toennessen and Emma B who sang their hearts out for our Hardship Fund and raised close to £900.

Vacancy - Education and Community Care Lawyer

JfK are looking to recruit a education and community care lawyer as soon as possible.

The role: mainly to provide children and young people with direct representation and advice at first instance hearings, for example Independent Appeal Panels and SENDIST, as well as judicially reviewing cases, particularly in urgent s17/s20 Children Act 1989 disputes where Local Authorities are not appropriately supporting and accommodating vulnerable young people.

The main activities will include:
· providing legal advice and assistance to children and young people in relation to school admissions and exclusions, special educational needs and appeals to SENDIST;
· providing direct representation at relevant education hearings;
· providing legal advice and assistance to children and young people in the care system, including “looked after” children and those leaving care;
· taking cases and preparing and issuing judicial review challenges in the above fields;
· working with JfK’s Youth Advocate to meet the needs of its client group.
· Participating in the trainings organised by JfK Law.
· Attend relevant trainings in areas of Education or Community Care Law

The Person: The successful candidate will be a solicitor or have other equivalent legal qualifications and experience. We are a small but vibrant community based organisation looking for a hard-working, dedicated, computer literate, individual who is committed to advancing the rights of our client group. The Education and Community Care Lawyer will be under the direct supervision of the Directors of Just for Kids Law. Any job offer is subject to CRB approval.

Hours: We are preferably looking for someone to work full-time. Working hours may be outside typical office hours.

Office: Just For Kids Law is situated at 402 Harrow Rd. The closest underground stations are Westbourne Park (Hammersmith and City) and Warwick Avenue (Bakerloo). The majority of our clients are based locally.

Starting Salary: ₤28,500 per annum.

Application: CV’s and a covering letter to be sent to shauneenlambe@justforkidslaw.org

Closing Date: 6th November 2009.

Closure of Secure Children's Homes

JFK has grave concerns about the YJB decision to cut the number of secure children's home places from 219 to 191. Whilst custody is rarely a productive outcome for a young person caught up in the criminal justice system, SCH's provide the kind of care and provision that the YJB should be seeking to develop.

JFK has grave concerns that more young people will be placed in Young Offender Institutes or Secure Training Centre's. These places just aren't suitable for very young and vulnerable young people.

Mary O'Hara has written about the concerns of penal reformers in today's society Guardian.http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/20/secure-care-homes-closure

We are also concerned that young, vulnerable people will be placed far from the families and communities that are so important to ensuring they stay away from offending behaviour. In addition, under the Carter Legal Aid reforms, lawyers no longer get paid for their travel time to visit clients held in custody. JFK has concerns that as there will be no SCH provision in the London area that young people may in effect be denied access to their solicitors, as firms will be under financial strain to spend significant time travelling to visit their clients.

Hemini hits the headlines

Hemini's charity run has made it to the news! Clink the link to see the article and don't forget to sponsor her through www.justgiving.com/heminipatel

http://www.londoninformer.co.uk/london-news/london-local-news/2009/04/17/10-000kms-just-for-the-kids-113489-23407540

The 'Hardship' Run

Hemini Patel, a solicitor in the Youth Department is doing the BUPA 10K run on the 25th May for JFK! Any money raised will go to the JFK Hardship Fund.

The hardship fund allocates a maximum of £250 to our clients with an urgent financial need and who, without our assistance, have no legitimate means of getting the money.

Just this month the hardship fund has been used to buy groceries and toiletries for a 16 year old girl who we represent. Her borough refused to accept she was a child in need - even after she presented to them homeless having been diagnosed with hypothermia and malnutrition. Through our intervention the borough have accepted their responsibility to this young girl and have housed her in supported accomodation. The hardship fund was also used to buy beds for 2 of our clients age 15 and 13. Our youth advocate discovered that they were having to sleep on the floor- they had recently moved from their father's house and social services would not provide their mother with a grant to buy them beds.

Please sponsor her- just click on this link www.justgiving.com/heminipatel . Just giving is an easy way to donate and if you are a UK taxpayer an extra 28% is given to us in Gift Aid.

Jermaine in the News

Clink the link to see Jermaine's interview with local newspaper. Jermaine won the prestigious 'Black boy of Achievement Award' and credited JFK with helping him get his life on track.

http://www.londoninformer.co.uk/london-news/london-local-news/2009/02/17/just-for-kids-law-success-story-scoops-award-113489-22945089/

Jermaine is the winner!

Jermaine Noon was awarded the black boy of distinction award on Saturday 24th January by the "National Black Boys Can Association."

Lee Jasper, the race equality campaigner presenting the award compared Jermaine to Barack Obama saying that when our young men want to turn their life around they say "yes we can."

Jermaine received a standing ovation when he received the award. He thanked JFK for all their help and said that he couldn't have turned everything around without our help. He told us later that he is really happy with where he is in his life right now.

We all send Jermaine a big congratulations. He totally deserves the award and we are just delighted that he is doing so well!

JFK is delighted to announce that Jermaine Noon has been nominated and is a strong contender for the award of 'Black Boy of Distinction" by the The National Black Boys Can Associaton http://www.blackboyscan.co.uk/event_details.php?id=6. The award ceremony forms part of their national conference on the 24th January at the Emmanuel Conference Centre.

Jermaine is a former client of JFK and really has turned his life around. He was one of six children and as a child he witnessed domestic violence in the home. Between 2000 and 2005 he was placed on the Child Protection Register. In 2006 Jermaine was defined as a persistent young offender with a long history in the criminal justice system. He was banned from the YOT, was being considered for an ASBO by his borough and was deemed to have serious anger management issues. Then to make matters worse, by 2007 he was homeless. He decided to turn his life around and was assisted in this by the Youth Offending Team and Just for Kids Law. With our help he obtained his driving licence and eventually after a successful interview and undertaking a 14 week training program he secured himself a full-time job with the National Grid. He has now been in full time employment for 9 months and continues to get positive reviews from his employers. Jermaine now rents his own flat, owns a car and is a pro- active ambassador for Just for Kids Law, helping us out wherever he can. He has got involved in training law students on the Youth Justice System and even built our office furniture!

We wish Jermaine the best of luck for Saturday!

Una Padel Award

JFK was delighted to receive the Una Padel Organisation award from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies last night. http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/

The presentation ceremony was followed by a panel discussion chaired by Mark Easton (Home Affairs Editor, BBC) including Tina Jenkins, (Ministry of Justice) Clive Martin, (Director of Clinks) and Matthew Smerdon (The Baring Foundation.) The debate focussed on voluntary sector independence in the world of government contracts.

Una Padel was a Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies until 2006 and a tireless campaigner for penal reform. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/sep/07/guardianobituaries.ukcrime

The Centre for Criminal Justice Studies set up this award to recognise those working tirelessly at the unglamorous end of the criminal justice system. Shauneen Lambe, Director of JFK, accepted the award saying, “ In our work you can often feel under appreciated, so being recognised and supported in this way makes a huge difference and is incredibly encouraging.’

We feel very honoured to receive this award, named after a such an inspiring woman.