Legal advocacy reimagined . . .

Preventive legal advocacy and pre-petition programs across the country are reimagining what it means to provide high quality legal representation to vulnerable parents and families at-risk of facing family separation.

About the PLA/PP National Cohort

Preventive legal advocacy and pre-petition programs play a crucial role in reducing over-reliance on the child welfare system by focusing on early legal intervention and hollistic support for at-risk families and parents facing child protection investigations. These programs address underlying civil legal issues and other barriers impacting family stability before they lead to family separation. By providing legal guidance, social services, and resources to at-risk families, early legal advocacy programs promote family integrity, protect against the trauma of child welfare interventions, and reduce entries into foster care.

The PLA/PP National Cohort is a learning collective that brings existing and emerging early legal advocacy programs and stakeholders together to provide an invaluable opportunity for collaboration and knowledge exchange. Despite new widespread interest in these types of programs, preventive legal advocacy and pre-filing defense remains a relatively new field. By fostering a sense of community among programs, advocates, and community stakeholders, the cohort serves as a free space to explore common practices and share resources, ideas, and information to enhance program impact and further the field of early legal advocacy.

“Sometimes the strangeness of proactive legal work in the area of family preservation feels daunting, and it is very helpful to me to know that others are doing it successfully and effectively.”

– Kristen Foster, Family Advocacy and Support Team Clinic, Arizona

Monthly Meeting Information

Meeting Schedule

Next Meeting: January 21, 2025

The Cohort meets via Zoom on the third Tuesday of each month from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. EST to explore topics relevant to program design and implementation and the effective practice of early legal advocacy.

Each meeting is recorded and the Cohort maintains an archive of these sessions. If you are interested in viewing these materials, or joining us for our next meeting, please use the form below to join the Cohort and access meeting archives and other program resources.

Meeting Topics

Upcoming Meeting Topic:

TBA

Past Meeting Topics:

Washington VPA Hotline
New Rule title IV-E Legal Rep.
Mandated Reporter Education
Strength Based Intake Assessment
Common Funding Sources
Outcome Measures
Radical Early Defense
Know Your Rights Advocacy
Effective Community Partnerships
Peer Partner Training and Support
Family Miranda Efforts
Hidden Foster Care
NPRM for Title IV-E Legal Rep.
Principals of PLA & PP Rep
New Program Development
Title IV-e draw down “How To

Cohort Members by State

Click on a state below to view members from each jurisdiction. To view national partners, click on the National Orgs section.

Learning Center

Principles & Components

Review the principles and components of effective early legal advocacy.

Resource Library

Browse resources exploring topics relevant to PLA programs and pre-petition representation, including a large collection of program design and implementation resources

Program Spotlights

Explore the groundbreaking work of early legal advocacy programs across the country.

Join the PLA/PP National Cohort

Interested in learning more about the Cohort? Please fill out the adjacent form to join. While we’re always excited to welcome new programs to the group, you don’t have to be part of an existing PLA/PP program to participate in the Cohort. The Cohort is intended to serve as a free resource for any stakeholders interested in learning more about early legal advocacy and its capacity to prevent unnecessary family separation. For questions about the Cohort, please e-mail Emilie Cook at etcook2@emory.edu.

Legal advocacy reimagined . . .

About the PLA/PP National Cohort

– Kristen Foster, Family Advocacy and Support Team Clinic, Arizona

Monthly Meeting Information

Meeting Schedule

Meeting Topics

Cohort Members by State

California

Oregon

Washington

Arizona

Nevada

Utah

Idaho

Montana

Wyoming

Colorado

New Mexico

South Dakota

North Dakota

Kansas

Nebraska

Oklahoma

Texas

Illinois

Iowa

Missouri

Arkansas

Louisiana

Mississippi

Tennesse

Kentucky

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Indiana

Alabama

Georgia

Florida

South Carolina

North Carolina

Virginia

Washington D.C.

West Virginia

Ohio

Michigan

Maryland

Delaware

Pennsylvania

New Jersey

New York

Connecticut

Rhode Island

Massachusetts

Vermont

New Hampshire

Maine

Alaska

Hawaii

National Organizations

Learning Center

Resource Library

Program Spotlights

Join the PLA/PP National Cohort

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