Legal Services for Children (LSC) provides free legal and social services to children and youth in order to stabilize their lives and help them realize their full potential. LSC’s in-house attorneys and social workers, as well as our pro bono attorneys, provide every client with comprehensive, holistic services to enable them to achieve safety and stability, and avoid unnecessary placement in the foster care and juvenile justice systems.
Each year, LSC serves over 2,500 children and provides comprehensive representation to approximately 600 youth. Depending upon their specific needs, clients may receive services from any of the following programs.
Guardianship Project Supports children seeking legal guardianship with a family member or other committed adult when they are unable to continue living with a parent.
Hope Project Assists families in which a parent, guardian or child is HIV positive, or suffering from another terminal illness, through case management and legal assistance with joint guardianship or other permanency planning.
Dependency Project Represents children in foster care and helps them with education, immigration, public benefits, and placement issues.
Young Women’s Empowerment Project Offers gender-sensitive advocacy and support to high-risk young women and girls who face multiple challenges, such as family or partner violence, sexual exploitation, and teen pregnancy.
Education Project Represents students facing expulsion, advocates for fair and constructive school discipline policies, and ensures that schools address students’ individual needs through mental health services, multilingual instruction and special education.
Partners for Success Deters juvenile court involvement for youth who are at-risk of entering or have already crossed paths with the juvenile justice system.
Immigrant Youth Initiative Represents unaccompanied immigrant children and youth who are detained and released by the Department of Homeland Security and consequently face deportation (Detained Immigrant Children Project or DICP) as well as undocumented youth who are at-risk for detention although they have not yet been detained. Many clients are found eligible for asylum or immigration relief available to victims of abuse, neglect, abandonment, persecution, or human trafficking.
Immigrant Youth Justice Initiative Assesses policies and practices governing immigrant youth involved in the juvenile justice system to determine their impact on racial disparities, particularly with regard to Latino youth. This project is a collaboration of LSC, the W. Haywood Burns Institute and Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
