Youth Advocacy: A Strategy for Service to Troubled Youth

This paper addresses the concept of child advocacy as a service strategy for troubled youth, particularly juvenile delinquents. The shortcomings of more traditional approaches to these youth and the concomitant recommendations for the use of advocacy are reviewed. The lack of clearly specified operating principles and techniques for advocacy interventions is noted as an obstacle to the implementation of a child advocacy strategy. The successful advocacy techniques utilized in an ongoing delinquency program, the Adolescent Diversion Project, are detailed. Some implications of the use of advocacy for other target populations are also examined. (Author)