The Leaders for Justice program is a transformative experience with powerful impact for participants, who become more civically engaged and confident in their own strengths. Our leadership model is collaborative and we aim to bring our expertise to as many ecosystems as possible. We encourage initiative and promote a healthy leadership culture in justice and society. Together with a core group of 25 alumni we have outlined a soft skills curriculum (personal development modules) with which we aim to reach different target groups through eight leadership programs tailored to their needs. The trainers and facilitators will be Leaders for Justice members who have already gone through internal Train the Trainers programs and built their own training modules with original content. The eight programs are: LfJ Students (2nd and 3rd year), LfJ Teachers (academics), LfJ Summer Camp (young legal professionals), LfJ Up (for decision makers), LfJ Support (intervention in a team/ organization), LfJ Regio (Banat, Centre, Moldova, Dobrogea, Oltenia, etc), LfJ Professionals (participants from the same profession), LfJ 2.0 (online).

Currently, the program does not have financing.

Coordinator: Doru Toma

Consultants/mentors: Codru Vrabie, Mihai Drăgoi (LfJ trainers)

Project team and future facilitators: 20-25 LfJ members

The program consists of a series of interactive workshops in which high school students are put in front of situations (practical cases) that they can solve, using the materials provided by the facilitator (including the Romanian Constitution or excerpts from the law). At the same time, they are challenged to identify real events in which they have been involved, directly or indirectly, and in which they have found violations of the law or have been in a situation in which they felt powerless to react – at school, at home, in contact with various authorities, hospitals, neighbours, friends. This will be related to their experiences through open discussions on the proposed topics, as well as by filling in questionnaires aimed at identifying their needs.

The facilitator (having legal training and in most cases a member of the LfJ community) provides legal input into the topics being analysed (constitutional, civil and criminal references or provisions) or procedural solutions where they arise, input that will lead to awareness and consciousness of their rights and obligations in society. Their role is to encourage participants to find their own solutions, to develop their critical thinking, but also to create a framework for free debate, using non-formal education tools. The cases have a legal theme tailored to the realities that young people may face on a daily basis and the language used is student-friendly.

The program has been implemented by the LfJ Community since 2017 and has already reached more than 5000 students all over the country, including by witnessing legal education (Timișoara, Râmnicu-Vâlcea, Iași, Bucharest) with workshops in 10-15 classes on the same day. Over 40 LfJ members have held workshops in the last 8 years. We communicate and promote the project on our Facebook page.

With EduLex, every pupil who has access to a smartphone with internet access will have a digital friend who will correctly inform and guide them when they have a legal program. Whether they face a dilemma at school, at home, with their friends or in society, the app will provide them with the answers they need to behave honestly, respect the law and act in an honest way towards those around them. At the same time, the project aims to build a solid knowledge base for these young people, using interactive activities (including legal games) and communication materials tailored to them, to familiarize them in an engaging way with concepts of law and justice.

We bring young jurists from the Leaders for Justice community face to face for informal conversations about their professional and personal lives with the aim of showing the human face of justice and deconstructing concepts and processes that at first glance seem complex or seem hard to understand. We are filming together with Mihai Dragolea (Dela0) a number of episodes in the form of dialogues between two jurists who come into contact in their professional life (police officer - prosecutor, civil lawyer - civil judge, notary - civil servant, etc.) The material will be promoted online as episodes, film and short/reels.

To be launched in 2025

This project consisted of workshops in eight high schools in Bucharest, Brașov, Constanța, Craiova and Zalău, respectively five high schools in Chisinau, Șoldănești and Orhei. The themes of the workshops were:

• independence and the rule of law

• integrity and the rule of law

• courage and the rule of law

• honesty and the rule of law

• responsibility and the rule of law

• vision and the rule of law

• team and the rule of law.

High school students worked in teams on specific scenarios, having the Constitution of Romania in front of them and putting themselves in the shoes of a judge: to decide what is right, moral, legal.

The academy was an intensive training for people from the local community concentrated in Timiș County in order to create a group to take a stand against corruption and spread this proactive spirit in their institutions and organizations.

In 2014, conferences were held in several universities, in which young people had the opportunity to discuss with legal professionals, experts or media representatives about strengthening the rule of law, the legal reality in Romania and democratic values.

This was an intensive personal development program for young people at the beginning of their career, during which the participants acquired knowledge of leadership, project management, public speaking, decision making, visioning, etc. The purpose of the program was to bring together actors of the judiciary such as lawyers, judges, prosecutors, graduates of the Police Academy but also journalists, economists and political analysts who are active within and around the legal system, for them to acquire leadership skills and knowledge, but also to form a vision on the Romanian justice system and to interact directly in a non-formal space.