The 2012 Impact Fund grant from the Indianapolis Bar Foundation has been given to Reach For Youth – Teen Court to support a part-time teen court coordinator.

The organization is the second recipient of the $35,000 Impact Fund. In 2011, the bar foundation selected the Health and Human Rights Clinic at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law to receive the grant.

The bar foundation money will fund the expansion of Reach For Youth’s Teen Court program. The teen court coordinator will train student jury members at schools rather than at Reach for Youth offices and attend court sessions as needed. The goal is to encourage each school’s independence with the program so that, eventually, Reach for Youth staff will become unnecessary.

Reach for Youth is a nonprofit youth and family counseling agency that serves central Indiana. Its Teen Court program offers an alternative to the juvenile justice system for first-time offenders age 11-17 with the goal of reducing recidivism for first-time offenders.