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Promoting policies and programs to create child and family well-being are central to CSSP's mission. One of our central goals is to help systems and policymakers keep children safely at home and out of the foster care system whenever possible.

Effective preventive efforts can support families in meeting a range of needs to keep children safe and secure with their families. One of these needs is for legal representation.

Families involved with child welfare systems often have multiple legal as well as social service needs.  A new paper from CSSP entitled Case Closed: Addressing Unmet Legal Needs & Stabilizing Families, authored by University of Michigan Law Professor Vivek S. Sankaran and Martha L. Raimon, senior associate at CSSP, highlights multi-disciplinary programs that have demonstrated success at keeping families safe at home and avoiding the need for out-of-home placement.

Preliminary data suggest that these programs not only keep children safe, they also have the potential to save child welfare systems money by reducing the need to rely on costly foster care.

The core elements to the models are similar: families are provided with the assistance of an attorney, social worker and parent advocate to help resolve legal and social work issues which may affect the safety of their children. This collaborative, multi-disciplinary model helps a family navigate a complex process. For example, lawyers may file for a restraining order, file for guardianship, apply for public benefits or help with special education issues.  The social worker works with existing community partners to help the family connect with a network of local service providers. And a parent advocate, who has experienced the child welfare system, provides the parent with crucial information on how to successfully engage with public systems.

This paper is part of CSSP's work to highlight policy strategies that emphasize partnerships and innovative thinking to help children and families be safe, secure and successful.