Center For Family Representation

Youth defense practice: the same city agency that runs the foster system also runs the teenage incarceration system. We represent primarily black and brown youth who are criminally charged in family court or "youth parts" in queens, manhattan and the bronx with the same interdisciplinary model we bring to family defense. Our goal is to keep youth home, with their families to avoid the devastating impact of separation and incarceration.

Community advocacy project (cap) 608,249: cap provides 'early defense' to parents facing a city investigation of maltreatment, with the goal of avoiding a court prosecution altogether and keeping families intact and connected to services. Cap also provides parents with representation to modify the state records that correspond to a family policing investigation; the records often prevent parents from seeking employment in fields where employers regularly check these records. When a parent's family defense case is dismissed or they have overcome challenges that lead to maltreatment charges, cap assists parents with amending these records, thus expanding employment opportunities for our clients. Home for good 1,488,767: cfr families often face several challenges in addition to a family court case and often need assistance in the areas of housing (to prevent eviction and obtain stable housing), immigration (to achieve legal status and access culturally competent services), public benefits (to secure and sustain important benefits like medicaid), and in criminal court (to defend allegations that are related to their family court case). Challenges in any of these areas can lead children to enter, remain in, or re-enter the foster system. Our home for good initiative gives families an efficient one-stop solution to provide them with needed advocacy in these other areas and so keep their families stable. Our civil legal services team, immigration team, and criminal defense teams assist more than 650 families annually to keep their children home for good.

Training, technical assistance, and policy advocacy 15,460: annually cfr provides training and technical assistance to more than 1,500 professionals across the country, including judges, on our interdisciplinary model. Staff also regularly host community based trainings for parents and youth. To date, we have worked with over 11,000 practitioners in 20 states, who hope to replicate some or all of our nationally recognized interdisciplinary cornerstone advocacy model. Cfr staff regularly present at national conferences and sit on advisory boards and work groups directed toward legislative and policy reform to promote justice for indigent families and youth.