FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Liz Ryan

December 8, 2004 202.637.0377 ext. 112 or

Cell: 202.285.8309

Youth Law Center Honors Unsung Heroes

Children and Youth Advocates Recognized

San Francisco and Washington, DC – The Youth Law Center announced today that it will give its highest honor to five leading individuals from around the country for their extraordinary contributions to improve the lives of children and youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. The Youth Law Center will award a prestigious “Loren Warboys Unsung Hero” award to each of these individuals at a ceremony and reception on Monday, December 13^th from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm at the City Club located at 155 Sansome Street in the Café Room on the Tenth Floor in San Francisco, CA where the center is headquartered. This year’s awardees are Kenneth E. Barnes, Sr. (Washington, DC); Reverend Norman Copeland (Los Angeles, CA); Richard Pfeiffer (Orange, CA); Richard Rosenbaum (Fort Lauderdale, FL) and Scott Stitham (Novato, CA).

“All five of this year’s honorees share the struggle to support and uplift our nation’s most vulnerable children and youth,” said Carole Shauffer, Executive Director of the Youth Law Center. “We applaud their strong commitment to ensuring that children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems are treated humanely and fairly and receive appropriate services and support.”

The Youth Law Center presents the Loren Warboys Unsung Hero award each year to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to improve the lives of at-risk youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Loren Warboys joined the staff of the Youth Law Center in 1979 and became Managing Director in 1994. He was a nationally recognized expert on education and mental health services for children in the juvenile justice system, and succumbed to leukemia in December, 1999. To honor his memory, the Youth Law Center has established the Loren Warboys Memorial Fund and the Unsung Hero Awards.

The Youth Law Center (YLC) is a public interest law firm whose mission is to end abuse and maltreatment of children in the nation’s foster care and justice systems, and to ensure that these children are connected to families and communities. The Center engages in advocacy, including public education, policy advocacy, training, technical assistance, and litigation activities, seeking to ensure that children in state custody live free of abuse and dangerous conditions, are treated fairly and not subjected to discrimination, and receive the support and services they need to become healthy and productive adults.

The 2004 Loren Warboys Unsung Heroes are:

Kenneth E. Barnes, Sr., MS - Washington DC

Kenny Barnes, Sr. lost his eldest son, Kenny Barnes, Jr., to gun violence in September 2001, when the 37 year-old shop owner was shot and killed by a young person who was later found to have been on runaway status from a District group home for delinquent youth. After the shooting, Barnes turned his pain into positive action by founding Reaching Out to Others Together (ROOT), a non-profit organization committed to advocacy, education and intervention on behalf of individuals and families of murder victims. Mr. Barnes hopes to emulate the work of organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and plans a public service campaign against gun violence within urban communities called GUNS ASIDE. The campaign will include a pledge drive to sign up youths who promise to stay away from firearms, workshops, seminars, school assemblies, and the like, all with the goal of reducing violence in the community. But Mr. Barnes has rejected a purely punitive approach to public safety. During the past year, Mr. Barnes was a powerful and effective advocate working with the Youth Law Center and other allies in successfully opposing punitive legislation in the District of Columbia which would have made it easier to send children to the adult criminal justice system and punished parents of delinquent youth by suspending their driver’s licenses and possibly evicting them from public housing.

Reverend Norman Copeland – Los Angeles, CA

Reverend Norman Copeland is a recognized leader of Los Angeles’ Faith Communities for Families and Children, a coalition of faith leaders brought together by their commitment to those children whose families are least able to help or protect them. The Coalition is dedicated to ensuring that all children have committed families for life, that children who cannot live with their own families maintain ties to their communities, their brothers and sisters and their schools and have other loving families to nurture them and keep them safe, and that all children have the opportunity for healthy growth and development. Reverend Copeland has worked to ensure that children and youth are connected to their communities, as children in state care are often removed from their communities and have little contact with their religious community, their relatives, and their cultural experiences, which can impact their self esteem and behavior.

Richard Pfeiffer - Orange, CA

Richard Pfeiffer is an attorney in Orange County who has championed the rights of children and families in the child welfare system. Unafraid to challenge the system or take on challenging cases, he handles appellate cases and has represented numerous children, youth and families – on a pro bono or reduced fee basis -- in an effort to provide them with needed services and family supports, as well as to halt discriminatory practices. For example, he represented the foster parents of some of the Youth Law Center’s named plaintiffs in an Adoption Assistance Act case against California (filed in 1997) where the county agency retaliated against the foster parents for filing complaints about means-testing and not receiving adoption assistance. He ultimately won the case on appeal for the foster family and the appellate court noted in its opinion how the county had improperly removed children from their family. In another case, he successfully represented siblings who were split up in foster care in order to get them placed together. Mr. Pfeiffer also volunteers with several organizations, including the Center for Community Reconciliation in Orange County.

Richard Rosenbaum – Fort Lauderdale, FL

Richard Rosenbaum served as appellate counsel to Lionel Tate, a 12 year old boy in Florida sentenced as an adult to life without parole for the death of a six-year-old child who lived next door to Lionel’s family. The case received national and international attention when, following advice from his mother, Lionel turned down a plea agreement that would have resulted in his being incarcerated for three years in the juvenile system. Instead, the case went to trial in adult criminal court and Lionel’s trial attorney presented a controversial defense, claiming that Lionel was imitating wrestling moves he had seen on television and accidentally killed his young playmate. A jury rejected the claim and Lionel was convicted of 1^st degree murder. The verdict was overturned by an appeals court, which cited concerns that Lionel did not understand the legal decisions he was making. The court held that due to his age, Lionel should have been given a competency hearing before being allowed to proceed to trial. Following the appeal, Lionel pleaded guilty to 2^nd degree murder and was placed on probation in the community after being given credit for the three years he had already served. Lionel is currently on probation. The case highlighted Florida’s practice of giving prosecutors virtually unlimited discretion to try children in adult criminal court and the fact that Florida imprisons more children with adults than any state in the nation.

Scott Stitham – Novato, CA

Scott Stitham is a foster parent in Marin County who is an outstanding yet unrecognized advocate for foster children. Not only has he gone above and beyond what is normally expected of foster parents, by providing care, supervision and support to foster children, he has stood up for the rights of children he has fostered and has taken the extra effort to try to make sure that other foster children's rights are not violated. He is frequently criticized by administrators and various agencies for not being a "team player," but the needs and rights of children placed in his care is always his first concern, and advocating for them is his first priority. For example, he was a foster parent to a boy who had a number of problems, was adjudicated delinquent, and placed in a group home. He continued to serve as the boy’s surrogate parent for educational purposes even after the youth’s placement in the juvenile justice system. In the course of his visits to the boy in the group home placement and attendance at Special Education meetings at the facility, Mr. Stitham discovered many abusive practices at the facility and began to report them to a variety of authorities. The Youth Law Center worked with Mr. Stitham to urge the group home’s licensing agency to initiate another investigation, which resulted in the group homes' license being revoked and later restored after substantial corrective actions and program changes were implemented. In another case, through some very persistent and zealous advocacy, Mr. Stitham was able to get another foster son out of an abusive non-public school placement. However, his advocacy didn't stop there. He prepared a very comprehensive complaint about the abuses the boy endured and filed it with the state department of education, resulting in a state investigation by the County Office of Education and local school district, which found them out of compliance in a number of areas. He also brought the practice of transporting juveniles to group homes in the same vans with adult felons to the attention of the Youth Law Center and state authorities.

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For more information or to set up interviews with any awardees, contact Liz Ryan at

(202) 637-0377 ext. 112.

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