Sophie Trevitt is a solicitor, campaigner and advocate for reforming the justice system. She has extensive experience of campaigning, media and communications and working for national NGOs and as a senior staffer in both state and federal politics. Sophie worked as a lawyer in Alice Springs working with Aboriginal children in detention or in contact with the criminal justice system. Sophie is the Executive Officer of Change the Record and the ACT Co-Chair of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, and works as a solicitor at Canberra Community Law.
Sophie has been driving the campaign nationally and locally to raise the age of criminal responsibility. She has brought her passion, impressive experience and skills to this campaign and worked mostly behind the scenes to coordinate, inform, advocate, and inspire others to join this campaign as a unified, coherent and informed voice. Her dedication and efforts have impressed all of us who have had the pleasure of working with her. It is her genuine display of integrity, to do what she knows is the right and just thing because it is valuable in-and-of-itself that continues to be inspiring. Raising the age of criminal responsibility is such an important social issue that will have positive benefits for the whole community. However, it has become an election commitment by the ACT government only because of the work of people like Sophie.
The Youth Coalition has chosen to acknowledge Sophie with this award for her ongoing work to better the lives of young people, which is incredibly significant but often goes unnoticed.