Standing up for Oregon's children, in court and in the community.
Juvenile Rights Project provides legal services to children and families who cannot afford counsel, through individual representation in juvenile proceedings and class-wide advocacy in the courts and the legislature.
The state's leading champion for young people
JRP is an Oregon law office devoted to representing young people. We win real improvements in the lives of individual children who have been abused or neglected, and when we find a system-wide problem, we work with partners across the state on policy solutions through training, administrative advocacy, legislation, and class representation.
Two units, one mission
Defense unit
JRP's defense unit acts as a children's public defender firm. Attorneys are appointed by the juvenile court to represent children in delinquency, dependency, and termination of parental rights cases at the trial and appellate level. The unit is funded through a contract with the Oregon Public Defense Services Commission.
Advocacy unit
The advocacy unit works like a children's legal services office, staffed by attorneys and a social worker for an interdisciplinary approach. It provides information, individual and class representation, administrative and legislative advocacy, technical assistance, and training across the state.
The HelpLine
Information, referrals, and advice on juvenile law for children, youth, and the adults helping them. The HelpLine handles roughly 600 calls a year from every part of Oregon.
Visit the HelpLine ›Children's Mental Health Access Project
A collaboration with the Oregon Advocacy Center that helps parents, guardians, and others access appropriate mental health services for children enrolled in the Oregon Health Plan.
Learn more ›Where JRP has made a difference
Decades of casework, litigation, and policy advocacy on behalf of Oregon's children.
Children in foster care
A statewide settlement with the Oregon Department of Human Services that drove more than $50 million in reforms, plus legislation creating foster-child scholarships and citizen oversight.
Children in public schools
SchoolWorks and the Education Project, special education representation, and training for more than 5,000 parents and caregivers across 25 Oregon counties.
Children in adult jails & prisons
A landmark constitutional ruling that holding untried juveniles in adult jails is unconstitutional, credited as a major factor in an 80% national decline in juvenile jailings.
Children in detention
Legislation ending the detention of status offenders and litigation that led to a consent decree improving Multnomah County's juvenile detention conditions.
Children in youth correctional facilities
Litigation and legislative oversight on conditions at state facilities, including emergency appropriations to strengthen mental health treatment at Hillcrest.
Children's mental health
Work with the Oregon Advocacy Center to reform intensive mental health services, plus training for more than 700 caseworkers and caregivers at sites across the state.
Fifty years of advocacy
JRP began as part of Multnomah County Legal Aid, with attorneys and law students representing youth in delinquency cases and in a class action against a state juvenile correctional facility.
The project joined Oregon Legal Services and continued its advocacy through lawsuits aimed at preventing the incarceration of minors in adult jails and improving conditions in state foster care.
JRP became an independent non-profit corporation, in part because of restrictions on the work that could be done for poor children and youth, and has championed Oregon's young people ever since.
Trusted across Oregon
"JRP attorneys are very knowledgeable, experienced and dedicated to their clients. The organization has also been instrumental in advancing good legislation for children."
"The Juvenile Rights Project is on the cutting edge of changing the way juvenile cases are handled."
"Other law firms advocate for individual children's rights in juvenile court matters but no one else advocates on policy issues regularly."
"JRP is an excellent clearinghouse for information about the abuse and neglect system. It is also one of the few agencies advocating for teens."
A board president who champions children's rights
Krispen Culbertson serves as President of the Juvenile Rights Project's board of directors, supporting the principle that children deserve thoughtful legal protection and solutions that do not force them to carry the burden of adult disputes.
In his own practice, Krispen is a Greensboro, North Carolina family law attorney and Senior Partner at Culbertson & Associates, where he has long fought for juvenile rights. Families facing a custody or divorce matter can reach a trusted Greensboro divorce lawyer through his firm. Read about juvenile rights in Greensboro, NC.
Need help for a child or youth?
The JRP HelpLine offers information, referrals, and advice on juvenile law. Reach us during normal business hours.
503-232-2540, ext. 246