June is National Reunification Month and to mark the end of the 2020 occasion, speakers highlight the effectiveness of multidisciplinary legal teams that include lawyers, social work professionals, and advocates who have lived experiences navigating the child welfare system. They explain the Children’s Bureau recent decision to invest federal IVE dollars in the multidisciplinary legal representation model for parents and children, share details of the 2019 study on this model and discuss how this model benefits child welfare agencies and most importantly, children and their parents.
Dependency Advocacy Center in Santa Clara, CA was founded on the belief that comprehensive family defense advocacy requires the support of a multidisciplinary team. In this webinar, they share how their commitment to this client-centered approach has supported reunification efforts for over a decade and is being adapted to create new prevention strategies for families at risk of system entry.
The webinar provides child welfare system stakeholders the evidence and motivation they need to implement multidisciplinary legal representation in their jurisdictions.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS PROGRAM IS NOT FOR CLE CREDIT.
Speakers include:
- Commissioner David A. Hansell, Administration for Children’s Services, NYC
- Professor Martin Guggenheim, NYU School of Law
- Associate Commissioner Jerry Milner, Children’s Bureau
- Moderator: Shrounda Selivanoff, Social Service Specialist, Washington State Office of Public Defense
Dependency Advocacy Center:
- AnnaLisa M. Chung, JD, Chief Executive Officer
- Kira Johnson, Social Worker
- Araceli Cervantes, Mentor Parent
Joint Sponsors: ABA Center on Children and the Law, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice
