Youth Guard

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   <default>Youth Guard</default>
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<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <header>Information</header> <label>Alignment</label> <label>Leader(s)</label> <label>Leader(s)</label> <label>Allies</label> <label>Allies</label> <label>Status</label> <label>Location</label> <label>First Appearance</label> <header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label> </infobox> The Youth Guard (Y.G. for short) is an independent organization primarily concerned with the welfare of the Wards and other hero groups with parahumans under the age of 18.<ref name=":4">Today, the Youth Guard employs thirty thousand individuals across the United States, and is an exceedingly popular charity.  68% of those polled said that they believed they were directly supporting the Wards program by donating to the Youth Guard.  62% believed they were directly supporting their local teams.  Youth Guard bumper stickers shirts and support ‘badges’ are a common sight across America.  It works primarily with the Wards program but also deals with other hero teams with under-18 heroes and heroines. - Organization: Youth Guard</ref> After a number of court rulings, they have effectively won or negotiated for particular powers over the PRT.<ref name="PRT" />

Modus operandi

The Youth Guard is the third largest peripheral organization around the PRT, and can actively work with or against the PRT to achieve its goals. The organization's primary purpose is to ensure the safety and well-being of child parahumans, which includes but is not limited to the Wards. They also have a focus on PR, similar to the PRT, acting as a charity, keeping up a good image, and staying relevant in the public eye.<ref name=":4" />

The Youth Guard's operations can utilize both legal means and public sentiment. The Youth Guard can reach out with their legal arm to impose fines, leverage judicial rulings to constrain the PRT, force certain actions, or temporarily pull a Ward off the team. When legal means aren’t available, the Youth Guard can use the media to apply pressure and influence public opinion.<ref name=":5" /> They have the ability to reach out to politicians and larger bodies, giving them a degree of political pull. Beyond the PRT, the Youth Guard collaborates heavily with child protective services, police, media, schools, and cape moms/dads.<ref>Allies: The Youth Guard sometimes work with the PRT and the aforementioned hotlines may lead to new heroes being referred back to the PRT, often with YG officers heavily involved in their cases from the outset. Most often they are a force in opposition to the PRT, especially as challengers, critics or investigating bodies for any new Wards programs and efforts that aren’t explicitly and entirely for the sake of the young heroes. Beyond the PRT, they collaborate heavily with child protective services, police, media, schools, ‘cape moms’, and ‘cape dads’. - Organization: Youth Guard</ref>

Wards

As the initial reason for their conception, the Wards program has numerous systems put into place for Youth Guard intervention. The Youth Guard is automatically brought into the picture if Wards receive lower than average grades. Repeated hospitalizations, reports from teachers or parents, or reports from the Wards themselves may also kick off the automatic integration of Youth Guard resource officers or automatic enactment of other penalties. The Youth Guard can also intervene more directly. They can use their legal branch to actively keep the PRT in check. When the PRT cannot or will not protect a Ward from outside forces like media antagonism, the Youth Guard can step in to defend them. In cases where a Ward is trying to sue someone, the Youth Guard may assist when the PRT refuses to. Outside of legal methods, the Youth Guard can also appeal to the public, using the media to achieve results.<ref name=":5">The Youth Guard is automatically brought into the picture if Wards receive grades lower than their average grade prior to becoming Wards, which leads many departments to scramble to improve their new Wards’ grades.

Repeated hospitalizations, reports from teachers or parents, or reports from the Wards themselves may also kick off the automatic integration of Youth Guard resource officers or automatic enactment of other penalties. These measures may also apply to non-PRT heroic teams (where the grades do not, unless they are very bad), and lead to the Youth Guard getting involved. These automatic processes don’t require lawyers, judges, or anything beyond the wrong info getting entered into files, and once underway are an uphill battle for the PRT to undo or prevent.

The Youth Guard can also reach out with their legal arm to impose fines, leverage judicial rulings to constrain the PRT, force certain actions, temporarily pull a Ward off the team, or seek bigger amounts. They sometimes can and will act legally in situations where the PRT cannot or will not, to protect Wards from outside forces, such as media antagonism. Wards may also reach out to the Youth Guard to get help suing someone in scenarios where the PRT has said they won’t, often because they don’t want to draw attention to something or they are taking action but the bureaucratic process is slow.

When legal means aren’t available, the Youth Guard can turn to public sentiment instead, using media to apply pressure. Newsworthy scenarios and cases and a sympathetic Ward can lead to protests, school events, and calling campaigns. The Youth Guard is a popular charity with the soccer mom demo, and this is a demo with a fair amount of clout and voting power, so they tend to get results.

Youth Guard employees are rarely combat-ready and are primarily bystanders. When relevant crises emerge, there may be a small number of zealots (Believer specific, combat-ready forces) among the rallied volunteers, but this is rare and necessitates an excess of outrage and a situation that has gone badly out of control, and it is rare for the Youth Guard to not have a voice and for riots to happen. - Organization: Youth Guard</ref>

In terms of priorities, the Youth Guard emphasizes safety, essential and tertiary needs, education, and identity. Deploying Wards into excessively dangerous situations, placing Wards in the way of parahumans with an undeniable ability to cause mental or emotional trauma, and knowingly thrusting a Ward into a situation where their traumas are exacerbated are greatly discouraged. Wards must be given adequate amounts of time to fulfill their physical and emotional needs, restricting the extent to which a Ward can be put into action. The PRT cannot be overly authoritarian, and must give Wards the ability to make their own decisions, keep in contact with loved ones, and enjoy entertainment.<ref name=":3" />

The Youth Guard ensures that a Ward's identity is respected. Wards are given a degree of involvement with the creation of their costumed identities, and those identities should conform to particular standards. Costumes cannot be overtly sexual, requiring 65% coverage of the body from the jawline down at minimum. Taking action that suppresses or interferes with the Ward’s gender identity and/or sexual identity is strictly prohibited. Departments must strive to create a costume that matches the Ward's gender identity. Finally, name and brand changes are limited to prevent exacerbating a Ward's identity issues.<ref name=":3">Safety
In circumstances where risks to the Ward are viewed as above and beyond the call of duty and not solely the fault of the Ward, the Youth Guard may call for penalties.

These concerns and subsequent penalties typically follow events where the Ward themselves feel they were thrust into a situation they were not comfortable with, where PRT staff raises questions, or footage finds its way to television or the internet, with the Ward facing obvious undue risk and, in rulings where the penalties were assigned, ensuing harm.

Mental and emotional risk are harder to assess, but specific cases may be made for putting Wards in the way of parahumans with an undeniable ability to cause mental or emotional trauma, including specific Masters or Shakers.

All Wards have their particular needs, relating to the circumstances of their trigger events, and knowingly thrusting a Ward into a situation where their traumas are exacerbated can raise questions.

Essential Needs
Wards should not be placed in action for prolonged periods of time if they would be denied the ability to eat, hydrate themselves or use bathroom facilities. Repeated interruption of the Ward’s sleep schedule may raise questions. These problems are usually symptomatic of a greater issue, and the Youth Guard typically steps in at the behest of the parent or youth.

Tertiary Needs
Rarely a standalone point, but oft raised as context to support other rulings. Overly authoritarian discipline, disallowing the Ward the ability to make their own decisions, cutting them off from loved ones, and denying any entertainment in the off-hours where the youth remains on duty may raise questions.

Frequently a concern for Directors - the head office would like to stress that the concern lies primarily with situations where the Ward is given no choices at all. The essential point to take away is that they are youths, not robots.

Education
Perhaps one of the most frequently raised concerns, given that it comes to pass twice a year at a minimum for any Ward, measures currently require that a youth maintain at least the same average grade that they had prior to becoming a parahuman. However, maintaining the same grades for a prolonged time may still be cause for concern. The objective, the Youth Guard would argue, is for the PRT to be a positive influence, giving structure and mentorship to the Wards, with a corresponding increase in grades. The drop of a letter grade with a report card may warrant Youth Guard attention. Mid-year grades or report cards in multi-semester programs remain one of the rare cases where a warning is warranted instead.

A lack of attendance can be considered a zero grade, with all the consequences this might entail.

Identity
Related in part to tertiary needs, the Youth Guard works to ensure that the Ward program conforms to particular standards and will have the opportunity to check in on any policy changes that might allow the Ward program, training or peripheral rules to compromise the Ward’s identities. Wards are given a degree of involvement with the creation of their costumed identities, and those identities should conform to particular standards.

Costumes should maintain 65% coverage of the body from the jawline down at a minimum. Cleavage should not be demonstrated, and with a young woman standing straight, arms at her sides, dresses and skirts should not be so short that she can touch her bare thigh, unless she wears monocolor tights beneath. Costumes should not emphasize sexual characteristics, unless it is to mask the apparent age of the Ward.

Taking action that suppresses or interferes with the Ward’s gender identity and/or sexual identity is strictly prohibited. Should a Ward self-identify as one gender, the department should strive to assist in creating a costumed identity to match that gender.

Name and brand changes should be limited. Adolescents in particular face sufficient identity issues without frequent rebranding. In some cases, the Youth Guard has stepped in to support Wards who wanted to keep names, even those of questionable taste. The PRT head office would strongly recommend that the name be chosen carefully and privately, with all relevant parties in attendance. - Organization: Youth Guard</ref>

When rules regarding any of the previous issues are broken, the Youth Guard may enforce penalties upon the department. It is the Youth Guard’s prerogative to decide what penalty best fits the situation, serves the interests of the Ward(s) in question and is most likely to change the department’s behavior. The Youth Guard can offer a warning instead, but are not liable to without notable outside pressures. A full list of penalties can be found here.<ref name="PRT">PRT Document for PRT: Department Sixty-Four</ref>

Non-PRT Teams

Although the Youth Guard tends to focus on the Wards program, they are not limited to the PRT, also working with heroic teams that contain underage parahumans.<ref name="II2.5e2">They’d reached out to my parents at one point, because they weren’t limited to the PRT.  They were a guillotine that had hung over the heads of any team with under-eighteen heroes or heroines.

“I’ve heard the horror stories,” I said. - Flare 2.5</ref> However, though they address the same issues as with the Wards, the mechanisms through which the Youth Guard gets involved are much more constrained and limited than with the PRT, making it harder for them to reach out.<ref name="red1" /> Most non-PRT involvement happens through family court and child welfare services, and because many of the automatic processes aren’t in place for these cases, intervention doesn’t often happen until things are already bad.<ref name=":1" />

Because most of the Youth Guard’s actions have to go through the court, legal actions and consequences tend to be blunter and higher stakes. Due to their comparatively infrequent intervention, the Youth Guard acts with much more impact when they do intervene, and can enact more extreme measures such as taking a youth away from a family team entirely, or large fines that cripple a fledgling corporate team with a lot of young members. They can also launch large PR blitzes against a given team, which can be devastating if the team's actions are seen as reprehensible.<ref name=":1">Sidenote, Non-PRT Teams:
The mechanisms for the Youth Guard getting involved in non-PRT teams are a little more constrained and limited, and there may be cases where the Youth Guard emphasizes their activities and expenses here because it’s far less visible and there are higher bars for confidentiality, leaks to the media, and judicial action.

Most non-PRT involvement has to happen through family court and child welfare services, and because many of the automatic processes aren’t in place for these cases, intervention doesn’t tend to happen until things are already bad.  Court, law, the young heroes or heroines themselves or hospitals may reach out to the Youth Guard for help.  Some work in this department may involve finding the cape in question, then carefully reaching out in a way that doesn’t violate the law or the rights the PRT waives.  Because most of the Youth Guard’s actions have to go through the court, legal actions and consequences tend to be blunter and higher stakes.

In short, arrive later, act less frequently and less on the small things, but act with much more impact when they do, to make efforts worthwhile.  These big actions could include taking a youth away from a family team entirely, or large fines that cripple a fledgling corporate team with a lot of young members.

PR blitzes tend to be similarly weighted; if the actions are reprehensible, the PR blitz is liable to be massive and devastating.  If more nuanced, the PR blitz may be impossible.  Beating up on a small team can reflect badly.  Because the Youth Guard has the ability to reach out to politicians and larger bodies, and because a city, county and/or state’s government have the ability to either give permission to a team or influence whether law enforcement (the PRT included) works with or against that team, they maintain some ability to utilize the nuclear option and go over everyone’s heads to the mayor, governor, or other overseeing entities.

Non-PRT teams may consequently be more brazen or less beholden to rules about things like maintaining grades, costuming, payment, working hours, etc.  As a team gets larger, the Youth Guard may start taking more action and imposing more rules. - Organization: Youth Guard</ref>

Despite this, non-PRT teams still tend to be more lax in the way of things like maintaining grades, costuming, payment, and working hours. Small teams often fly under the radar, especially if they are just starting out. However, as a team becomes more prominent and grows, the Youth Guard often makes an effort to reach out, and as scrutiny increases the Youth Guard may begin taking more action and imposing more rules.<ref name="red1">Yep. Worth saying they work with other teams that aren't the PRT, but the PRT stuff is higher visibility. Those other teams tend to get some slack, especially before 'taking off', but the Y.G. will act on reports and requests (often with a delay). After a team takes off, the Y.G. will often poke their head in and ask some questions, often inadvertently acting as a big hassle around the point in time a team really wants to focus on riding the cresting wave.
[...]
[Panacea] wasn't high profile, really.  Y.G. would really only be stepping in if you have a team rising to a prominence where, if they're west coast, people on the east coast know about them, and vice versa.

With the PRT they have an established agenda, focus, and mechanisms for reaching out.  With anyone else... not so much. - Tell me about the youth guard</ref><ref name=":1" />

Structure

Employment

The Youth Guard employs approximately thirty thousand individuals across the United States. The organization also employs a small number of capes (less than 100), most of which are capes that used to be protected by the Youth Guard. These Youth Guard capes mainly attend events and reach out to troubled capes on the organization's behalf. It is widely seen as a retirement position among capes.<ref>Estimated 30,000 employees as of 2012.

Less than 100 employees are capes, and those cape employees are primarily those who were protected by the YG who now do events and reach out to troubled capes on behalf of the YG.  This is widely seen as a retirement position.

Of the program’s expenses, roughly 14% go to administrative expenses, 41% to fundraising expenses, and 45% to mission statement expenses.  Employee ratios roughly correlate to these numbers; administrative staff and employees coordinating efforts, PR managers and community outreach, and lawyers.

[Table showcasing various types of employees and their pay]

The differences in these employees are largely immaterial from a WD standpoint aside from some interpersonal skills and education.  Resource officers have a slightly higher chance to have a background in law or military and of having a corresponding amount of training; this can help with relating to Wards themselves. - Organization: Youth Guard</ref>

Youth Guard employment positions include volunteers, outreach workers, lawyers, managers, and resource officers. Resource officers in particular have an important position, going into the PRT and working directly with Wards. Thus, the Youth Guard is extremely careful about who becomes a resource officer. Some resources officers have a background in law or military, which helps with relating with the Wards they work with.<ref>Recruitment is an ongoing hurdle for the YG, because they need educated, approachable ‘resource officers’ who are capable of standing firm against a three-letter government agency with a great deal of clout, who can work with traumatized and superpowered teenagers and children. The YG is not subject to all of the same extensive vetting and security procedures that control access to the PRT’s offices and they badly want to keep this the case; having those added restrictions could give the PRT a measure of control over them, shrink YG numbers and hamper recruitment further. This sets up the tightrope they must walk: recruiting enough resource officers while not recruiting those who would ruin the YG’s reputation, exploit the reduced barrier to access the PRT, or exploit/harm the youth. They are very careful about who becomes a ‘resource officer’, those with access to Wards, files, and PRT buildings and are frequently reaching out and promoting to new graduates who could become YG officers. - Organization: Youth Guard</ref>

Distribution

The Youth Guard is distributed across North America, with Youth Guard offices built into 15-20 of the largest PRT departments. The rest of the Youth Guard is mostly itinerant, setting up in areas on a temporary basis in order to monitor things. These itinerants tend to follow media attention — often negative — regarding PRT and hero teams.<ref name=":2">Location: Across North America.  Most of the 15-20 largest departments have Youth Guard offices built in, the rest of the YG are itinerant, setting up in areas on a temporary basis to monitor things.  This temporary settlement tends to follow media attention (often negative, for the PRT/hero teams).

Departments that frequently violate rules may have one or more Youth Guard resource officers permanently stationed adjunct to their staff.  If there are more than one, the number will depend on department size and the variety of the rule violations; each assigned YG officer will then focus on different departments and areas and then compare notes with their partner and the broader YG office.

Separate from the departments are many brand-focused offices, perpetuating the image of the Youth Guard, its logos and trademarks, and focusing on broader ‘awareness’, outreach, and running hotlines. - Organization: Youth Guard</ref>

PRT departments that frequently violate the rules may have one or more Youth Guard resource officers permanently assigned to them. The number of resource officers assigned depends on the department's size and the variety of rule violations. Each assigned officer focuses in different areas, often comparing notes with one another and the broader Youth Guard office.<ref name=":2" />

The Youth Guard also has many separate brand-focused offices. They work to perpetuate the image of the Youth Guard, maintaining its logos and trademarks, and focusing on broader ‘awareness’, outreach, and running hotlines.<ref name=":2" />

Mission Statement

The Youth Guard’s public mission statement, as it appears on their website:

• To increase the personal safety of child parahumans, reduce their risk of physical, mental, or emotional harm, and to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse
• To ensure that the child’s essential needs are met, and that the duties do not impact their requirement for food, water and sleep
• To ensure that the child’s peripheral needs are met, and that their duties do not have an egregious impact on their need for entertainment, freedom, self-esteem, or family
• To prevent the long-term harm to the children by way of a neglect in education
• To ensure that the child’s identity remains strong, preventing ‘boot camp’ grinding down of personality, brainwashing, cult-like manipulations, and sexualization of the costumed alter-ego
• To act as liaisons for parents who feel that the PRT is co-opting their rights
• To offer legal counsel to children and parents who have signed on with the PRT, when concerns lie with the PRT or other groups
• To research better practices on how to keep Wards safer
• To maintain comprehensive data on the latest trends in abuses.
• Coordinates national efforts in these areas through collaboration with non-profit agencies, government, industry, law enforcement, educators, and families

History

Background

In the case Reed v. PRT, the parents of Reed, one of the Inaugural Wards, alleged that Reed was not being given the time or resources to live a full and rich childhood during his time in the Wards. The PRT lost the case and Reed won certain rights and privileges, to be monitored by the same expert witnesses who testified on his parents’ behalf at the trial. They were given free access to the PRT locations and to Reed himself.<ref name=":0">In the Reed v. PRT ruling, the parents [names redacted] of Reed, one of the first Wards, alleged that he wasn’t being given the time or resources to live a full and rich childhood.  The PRT lost the case and Reed won certain rights and privileges, to be monitored by the same expert witnesses who testified on his parents’ behalf at the trial.  They were given free access to the PRT locations and to Reed himself.

Following the trial, efforts were made to reach out to and check with other Wards, by these experts, by journalists, and by volunteer outreach.  Many of these efforts were stymied or fruitless, especially when the organization lost their inside access with Reed’s departure from the Wards and PRT, and the original team of Wards scattered to multiple locations or ‘aged up’ into the Protectorate.  In a confluence of further rulings on behalf of new Wards, activist outreach, and fresh questions from media about the Wards program, the PRT agreed that the Youth Guard could act as a ‘separate but integrated’ organization adjunct to the Wards. - Organization: Youth Guard</ref>

Following the trial, there were efforts to reach out and check with other Wards by experts, journalists, and volunteers. An organization was formed, one which would become the Youth Guard. However, many of the Youth Guard's efforts to help more Wards were stymied, especially after the organization lost their inside access after Reed's departure from the Wards and PRT, but after further rulings on the behalf of Wards, activist outreach, and media scrutiny, the PRT agreed that the Youth Guard could act as a ‘separate but integrated’ organization adjunct to the Wards.<ref name=":0" />

The Youth Guard quickly snowballed in size, drawing from television appearances, lucrative charity drives and mass public support. They gained widespread national support, with Youth Guard bumper stickers, shirts, and ‘badges’ becoming a common sight across America. 68% of those polled said that they believed they were directly supporting the Wards program by donating to the Youth Guard. 62% believed they were directly supporting their local teams. As of 2012, the Youth Guard had an estimated 30,000 employees.<ref name="PRT" />

Story Start

The Youth Guard reached out to various superhero teams with underage parahumans such as New Wave,<ref name="II2.5e2" /><ref name="II5.6">“Natalie,” Tristan said.  “If they Youth Guard were active, they’d say no, and the kids would get involved anyway.  That was a thing that happened in my experience.”

“Oh man, my brother and I gave everyone headaches,” Crystal said.  “Our grades dropped and our parents were told we had to give up the costumes for a few months until we pulled them back up.  Our parents, the Youth Guard, even the PRT was asked to keep an eye out for us.  We were scoundrels.” - Shadow 5.6</ref> Reach,<ref name="II9.x">“I…” Mr. Vaughn said.  “Find myself in a difficult position.  On a certain level, I very much agree.  Where I’m leery is that we have had attention from the Youth Guard.  Gender freedom, freedom of expression, sexuality- they are touchy subjects.” - Interlude_9.x_II</ref><ref name="II9.z">A conspiracy.  Mr. Vaughn knew part of it was a lie, but he wouldn’t press.  Reach would get in trouble with the likes of the Youth Guard if it sanctioned minors going after professional killers, as much as it wanted the credit for arrests.  The rest of the team knew that part or all of it was a lie, but they didn’t want to get in trouble with Mr. Vaughn or Reach. - Interlude_9.z_II</ref> and Dryad Project 3.<ref name="II10.12">“I haven’t fought alongside them.  That’s part of it.  The other part is that  Recycler and Retouch are from Dryad Project 3.  Sponsored,” I said.
[...]
I shrugged.  “The lack of care from sponsors and the hired-on heroes seemed pretty obvious to most.  Then the team got on the wrong side of the Youth Guard, broke or toed the line of just about every damn rule in the book when it came to costumes, school, friendships, throwing kids into violent situations… Two pairs of parents were saying they hadn’t seen their kid in weeks.”
[...]
I shook my head.  “Two members of the other serious or semi-serious members joined a villain eco-terrorist group.  The team was barely staying afloat with money from sponsors, after a hundred fines from Youth Guard, court cases, more promotion and marketing, and then a reporter dropped an expose.  The sponsor wasn’t a saint in the eco thing, with cover-ups.  The heroes were a distraction.”

“Everything that could go wrong went wrong,” Anelace said. - Polarize 10.12</ref> The attention of the Youth Guard was considered a "guillotine" hanging over the heads of these teams, with the organization focusing on issues such as grades with New Wave, field risks and gender/sexuality issues with Reach, and a variety of issues with Dryad Project 3. In the case of Dryad Project 3, the scrutiny posed by the Youth Guard contributed to the team's eventual collapse.<ref name="II10.12" />

There were also cases where the Youth Guard actively helped, such as with Kenzie Martin, who they deemed was being moved around too much and set her up in Baltimore with her own workshop. Kenzie's experiences with her Youth Guard workers were positive, though those in charge of Kenzie chafed at their presence.<ref name="II2.5e3">“They weren’t a horror story for me.  They said I was being moved around too much and I needed to go somewhere to stay.  Not going to the fun camps and training sucked, but I went back to Baltimore, and I got to set up my workshop, fi-nuh-ly.”
[...]
“Yep,” she said.  She pitched her voice lower, “The Youth Guard was good to me.  I liked the people who I worked with there, even if the people in charge of me didn’t.  Some of my favorite people next to Mrs. Yamada worked for them. - Flare 2.5</ref>

Post-Gold Morning

The organization presumably dissolved after the destruction brought upon by Gold Morning.<ref name="II2.5e1">The Youth Guard or the Y.G. were the group that acted like the union that protected minors in Hollywood.  That had protected minors in Hollywood.  They were the group that made sure that Wards’ education and options didn’t suffer as a consequence for them being superheroes, that they didn’t dress provocatively, that they were safe and sane, that nobody took advantage, and other stuff. - Flare 2.5</ref>

Trivia

• The Youth Guard is never actually mentioned in Worm. It was first introduced in PRT: Department Sixty Four and is mentioned multiple times in Ward.

References

<references/>