Childrens Law Center Of Minnesota

Programs: Clc representation program: chips & state wards-child advocacy, guardianship, permanencyclc served 840 clients in 2017. This is an 15. 8% increase in the number of foster youth clc served in 2017 versus 2016. All clc clients are young people in foster care in mn, mostly between ages 10-21. Clc serves a high minority population. 80% of youth served by clc in 2017 are of color. Specifically, 459 are african-american (54%), 163 are native american (19%). 24 identify as unspecified/multi-racial (3%). 61 are asian (7%) and 62 (7%) are latino. (please note that many clients identify as more than one race. ) 100% of all clc clients are below the poverty line. Clc opened 289 new cases in 2017, and had 95 clients take advantage of extended foster care services between the ages of 18-21. Clc closed a total of 202 cases in 2017. Those that did not close will continue in 2018. 335 clc volunteer attorneys represented 470 of the 840 clients. Clc's 3 staff attorneys represented the other clients, and provided legal support and advice to volunteers on all cases. Counties where children were represented in 2017 include: anoka, blue earth, hennepin, pope, ramsey, stearns, st. Louis and washington. System reformin 2017, clc participated in the following coalitions which focus on changing the systems that affect and impact foster, homeless, and at-risk youth: 1) youth moving forward (ymf), a group of service providers involved with older foster care and homeless youth; 2) child well-being network (cwn), a group of individuals and organizations jointly creating a broad vision of child welfare policy and systems improvement; 3)children's mental health coalition, service providers intent on maximizing availability of appropriate mental health services for foster and at-risk youth; 4)youth law summit (yls), a coalition of legal service organizations focusing on creative legal solutions for all children in need; and 5)juvenile detention alternative initiative (jdai), a group of government, public and private agencies focused on addressing the juvenile justice reform and disparities in criminal justice system among juveniles. Clc also serves on the children's justice initiative, the juvenile court rules committee, and several bar association committees focused on children's rights and pro bono work. Educational programming (educational programming includes funds from representation and system reform program budgets)clc designed and presented training sessions for attorneys and a range of individuals working with youth. In 2017 clc reached more than 1,700 attorneys, teachers, law students, legislators, social workers and others through outreach and training sessions on topics including the importance of legal representation for foster care youth, laws regarding children aging out of foster care, breaking the cycle of poverty, and the collateral consequences of charging youth with criminal offenses. In may 2017, clc co-sponsored a state-wide cle webinar on the topic of "inside minnesota's child protection system". This event was attended by almost 200 stakeholders in the child protection system. Other noteable educational efforts undertaken in clc are:-a children's justice initiative presentation to attorneys who represent parents in juvenile proceedings;-"foster children in our classrooms and school-to-prison pipeline"-presentations to school teachers and staff during the minnesota education professional conference (mea) and again at the special education law & leadership conference;-"foster care and homelessness"-presentation at mitchell hamline school of law regarding issues minnesota's foster care youth experience, at risk youth and homelessness, and long-life consequences of being in foster care;-clc's website informs and invites at-risk populations to download resources that pertain to the legal rights of children in foster care. This, in turn, leads at-risk youth to contact clc for further information and assistance. -educated older clients in the system that they can remain in the system until age 21 and continue to receive services, education, and job skills training.