Inspire Us
Our mission is to advocate for victims of child abuse and neglect with the goal of securing safety, justice, well-being and a permanent, nurturing environment for every child.
For more than four decades, Child Advocates has served children who have experienced abuse or neglect by securing social services, finding alternative homes, and helping them testify in court. For all of the children committed to our care, we work to ensure safety, health, education, family permanency and access to justice. Whenever possible, Child Advocates seeks to maintain children and families in their own homes. Our attorneys and social workers have moved public systems to deliver entitled services and private providers to open their doors to our child clients and their families.
One day in 1971, Judge Lois Forer and young attorney Meg Greenfield met on the street in Philadelphia. This newly-elected judge explained to Meg that children were involved in child welfare cases with no one to represent them. About the same time, Judge Hazel Brown phoned attorney Jim Redeker, looking for a guardian ad litem to represent a baby. In June of 1971, the Young Lawyers Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association formed the Committee on Child Abuse, with Meg and Jim as Chairs, with a mandate to help fill the gap in legal services for children for whom reports of abuse had been filed. They created the model we use today – recruiting, training and supporting lawyers to provide their services pro bono to represent a child client involved in the Philadelphia child welfare system.
Child Safety & Justice
The majority of our clients are served through our Child Safety and Justice Program. This program offers general legal services and social service advocacy to more than 1,100 children and youth who have experienced abuse or neglect. Many are in protective foster care and may be involved as victims in criminal abuse cases. Our teams of Volunteer Attorneys and staff social workers stand with their young clients as counsel and guardian ad litem to represent them in court, advocating for their safety and securing supportive services to promote healing and well-being.
In addition to the Child Safety and Justice Program, we have specialty programs that address complex and specific issues. The staff who work within these projects are experts in this work.
Project for Children with Complex Medical Needs
In our award-winning Project for Children with Complex Medical Needs, we work to improve the health and well-being of clients who have complex medical needs that have been caused by or have resulted in, serious abuse and neglect. Our staff and Volunteer Attorneys advocate for these children and youth to ensure their health and safety and to secure necessary medical treatment, special education, rehabilitative services and permanent nurturing homes whenever possible.
Empowering Older Youth
Our Empowering Older Youth Program is led by a staff attorney who helps teens and young adults by providing them with additional services that prepare them for adulthood and independent living. These include: addressing housing issues, assistance with high school and college admissions; obtainment of vital documents; job training and coaching searches; resolution of collateral legal issues; re-entry into the child welfare system; and coordination with defense counsel when youth have simultaneous dependent and delinquent court involvement. The Empowering Older Youth Program has a positive social impact, helping court-involved youth avoid the poor outcomes to which they are vulnerable, such as homelessness, poverty, and crime.
Outcomes in Behavioral Health Project
Through our Outcomes in Behavioral Health Project (OBH), a specially-trained staff social worker consults on cases and engages other agencies when clients have behavioral health issues and require assessment and treatment. The extra oversight and intervention offered through the OBH Project ensures that clients receive needed services, resulting in greatly improved safety and permanency. The training series associated with our OBH Project has allowed us to share our behavioral health and training expertise with providers, caregivers and families throughout Philadelphia and the five-county area.
Project PROTECT
Project PROTECT (Philadelphia Response & Outreach To End Child Trafficking) is designed to identify and address gaps in representation and services for Philadelphia youth who have experienced trafficking. Through our representation of clients who have experienced trauma and abuse associated with trafficking, we know that cases involving human trafficking pose particular challenges for both victims and service providers. Project PROTECT takes a three-pronged approach to meeting this challenge, including the development of a tailored model of representation, a focus on local resource development, and research of advocacy avenues and policy approaches. The project focuses on identifying and meeting the needs of children and youth who have been trafficked for sex and labor to allow them a chance to heal and regain control of their lives.
In January 2020, we convened the Philadelphia Youth Anti-Trafficking Coalition, gathering 50+ public and private agencies to collaborate on identifying gaps in services for trafficked youth and coordinating those services. If you’re a professional interested in information on the Coalition and its resources please click HERE. If you’re a young person looking for information on human trafficking and how to access resources, click HERE.
Project YES!
Project YES! (Youth Educational Success) provides children in foster care with diligent, informed and zealous advocates who strive to maximize positive educational outcomes for our client base and ensure the enforcement of their legal rights. Led by our Education Law Attorney, we are able to provide the legal expertise, resources and support to fully expand the reach of our volunteers and ensure that children receive necessary educational advocacy in both court and school proceedings.
Between 2018 and 2022, we worked to understand existing barriers and outline concrete strategies to better support youth returning to a community school following time in a residential placement through the child welfare, juvenile justice, and/or behavioral health systems. In partnership with the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, and with support from the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Counsel, we published our findings in a report. You can access the report as well as a webinar and other materials to support youth working to achieve educational stability by clicking HERE.