WORKING WITH
YOUNG PEOPLE IN AND AROUND
THE JUSTICE SYSTEM
(2 DAY TRAINING)
This two-day training is for professionals supporting young people at serious risk, involved in the justice system, or transitioning back into community. It’s designed to strengthen how you engage, build trust, and support direction in complex situations—especially when behaviour is entrenched or change feels out of reach.
Built from real-world practice—not just theory—it reflects the current leading work of our lived experience mentors working across custody, bail programs, schools, and community settings. Every part of this training is drawn from what holds up in the work when things are messy, high-stakes, and complex.
What the Training Covers
This training is grounded in the real work—not the ideal version of it. It’s built around what professionals encounter every day: young people who’ve had multiple service contacts, mixed experiences with support, and strong reasons to be cautious. It’s also shaped by what it takes to keep doing the work well—when systems are under pressure, time is limited, and outcomes aren’t always clear-cut.
The training draws on our Identity Transformation Model, which focuses on three key areas: shifting mindset, supporting motivation, and strengthening structure. This isn’t a rigid framework. It’s a way of working that adapts to the complexity and pace of real environments.
You’ll build confidence in:
What Makes This Training Different
This is not a program designed at a distance.
It’s built on the current work of 16 Yards’ lived experience mentoring team—people supporting young people inside custody, on intensive bail programs, and in community-based transition. The model has been shaped over years of frontline mentoring, justice consulting, academic research, and service design—across youth justice, forensic settings, education, and culturally responsive practice.
It’s been tested where the work is toughest, refined through lived experience, and backed by professional rigour.
It’s structured. It’s clear. And it holds up when the work gets challenging.
About the Framework
The foundation of this training is the 16 Yards Identity Transformation Model. It focuses on how to support real, internal shifts in young people—especially those who’ve been labelled, excluded, or stuck in cycles of risk.
The model centres on:
You won’t leave with vague ideas—you’ll leave with a practical, repeatable structure for how to support change in young people facing serious challenges.
What You’ll Leave With
A clearer understanding of what drives entrenched behaviour—and how to respond in a way that shifts it
A practical, adaptable approach you can bring into your everyday work—across outreach, custody, education, or care settings
Stronger engagement skills to hold direction and purpose in high-pressure work
Strategies to navigate resistance and disengagement without defaulting to control
A way to support growth and stability that isn’t reliant on compliance or quick fixes
Clarity on your own role, boundaries, and presence when the work gets heavy
This is not a reset. It’s a deepening of what you already bring.
Who It’s For
Whether you’re embedded in a system or working at its edge, this training offers something solid to stand on.
Facilitators
Delivered by the core team at 16 Yards:
Shayne Hood – Co-founder, lived experience practitioner, trainer, practice development consultant, and service designer with expertise in justice and out-of-home care.
Dr. Stephane Shepherd – Co-founder, forensic psychology professor, researcher, and service designer with expertise in justice, risk, and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
Young people with lived experience of the justice system, now working as mentors and facilitators through 16 Yards