Play By the Rules National Trainers on Guam to Conduct Training

The Judiciary of Guam in partnership with the Guam Public School System will host a Play By the Rules (PBR) full-day training workshop Friday, February 27, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Guam.

PBR national trainers Ponya Parks and Kerri Williamson are on Guam this week to conduct training. Participants include GPSS 7^th grade teachers, middle school administrators, DYA staff and Lihen Famagu’on teachers, juvenile probation officers, Judiciary Client Services counselors, PBR Guam Team members, andother juvenile justice providers.

Guestspeakers will make presentations between 11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and will include Chief Justice Robert Torres presenting “Access to Justice in the Education of Our Youth”; Ignacio Santos, GPSS federal programs administrator demonstrating “How Federal Programs Benefit School Children”; and remarks byVice Speaker Benjamin J.F. Cruz as I Mina’ Trenta Na Liheslaturan Guåhan Chairman of Committee on Youth.

ChiefJustice Torres stated “we are pleased the program has been well-received bystudents, parents and teachers alike; and we look forward to working with the national project team, GPSS and other stakeholders to further develop and enhance the project to continue to provide access to justice to our youth and families”.

PlayBy the Rules is an innovative national education program that teaches middle-school students about laws through a curriculum of best practices proven to prevent youth crime.  The program is currently being taught in most 7^th grade classrooms across the island and this is the second training for the school year 2008-2009 in an effort to get certify all program practitioners to implement the programin their respective schools or agencies.

Guamis one of four states and/or jurisdictions in the U.S. awarded funds to takepart in Play by the Rules™ (PBR), an award-winning crime-prevention model for teaching state-specific law to seventh-grade students.  The Judiciary of Guam was awarded over $200,000 in 2008 by the national project to implement the program and other funding is provided via GPSS by Title 5 Consolidated Grants.

Playby the Rules was created and is directed by the Alabama Center for Law and Civic Education (ACLCE). PBR is taught as a part of the seventh-grade civics curriculum in all Alabama public schools. The program is entering its eighth year and has impacted more than 400,000 students so far. The ACLCE is a nonprofit corporation located at the Cumberland School of Law on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, AL. The organization was awarded a $1.2million grant from a U.S. Department of Justice Byrne Grant in 2007 to expand the outreach of its Play by the Rules program to other states and jurisdictions.Through the Judiciary, Guam’s middle-school students join youth in Alabama, Texas, Connecticut and Nevada as program participants.

Formore information on the Judiciary and Supreme Court of Guam, visit www.guamcourts.com, or contact Joleen F. Respicio, PBR Guam Coordinator and chamber administratorfor Chief Justice Torres, at 671.475.3300. Additional details on Play by the Rules are available at www.pbronline.org.