• act as a conference (See Conferences section on page 14 for more details);
• perform any other functions assigned to it by the provincially designated official who established the committee;
• work with youth who have committed offences by:
  • giving advice on what actions the youth should take as part of an extrajudicial measure;
  • supporting victims by asking about their concerns and help in the reconciliation of the victim and the young person;
  • making sure that community support is available for the youth (including programs) and enlist community members to provide supervision and mentoring;
  • helping to coordinate interaction between the child protection agencies and community groups and the youth criminal justice system if a youth is involved with one of these groups.

Youth justice committees in Alberta are formally “designated” by the province, which means that they have been approved by the province and that the province offers them support such as training.

Youth justice committees in Alberta usually recommend or decide what consequences a youth should receive. They do this by reviewing the case information and giving the youth, the youth’s family, the victim and other people involved the chance to talk about the impact of the offence on them as well as their concerns. The committee’s recommendations may include what the youth should do to repair the harm he or she has caused.

Youth may appear before a youth justice committee in a number of ways:

1. A case can be sent to a youth justice committee by the police. If the police decide not to lay a charge against the youth, they may instead refer the youth to appear before a youth justice committee.
2. A case can be sent to a youth justice committee by the crown prosecutor. If a charge has been laid by the police and the crown prosecutor has reviewed the file, the crown may decide that an extrajudicial sanctions program would be appropriate. The crown prosecutor sends the case to a probation officer who in turn can forward the case to a youth justice committee.
3. A case can be sent to a youth justice committee by a judge, after the youth is charged with the crime and appears in court. Once a guilty plea is entered, the judge may send the case to the youth justice committee for advice on the best sentence. After completing its review of the case, the committee makes its recommendations to the judge who may use the recommendations in deciding the sentence.