Legal Resources and Pro Se Legal Assistance

• Helpline - Family Legal Care – “Accessible by phone, email, and chat, our English and Spanish bilingual Helpline provides family law information, referrals, and appointments with our staff attorneys for in-depth case support.”
• Your Family Your Rights - “[t]his tool, created in collaboration with a steering committee of advocates and focus groups of parents, is designed to inform parents who are being investigated by New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) of their rights and how to navigate an investigation; help parents to connect with advocates to guide parents through the investigation process; and provide information on how to get involved with other parents who have been impacted by the family regulation system and are working to change it.”
• Unified Court System Forms and Petitions for Pro-Se Litigants
• What to Do When Children’s Services Comes to the Door (The City)
• Advance Planning for Non-Citizen Parents – Legal Aid Society resource for non-citizen parents who believe they may be at risk of deportation to plan for the care and custody of their children.
• A Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual (Columbia Human Rights Law Review)
• Chapter 33: Rights of Incarcerated Parents
• Family Justice Law Center – “The Family Justice Law Center uses affirmative litigation to seek justice for families mistreated by the child welfare system.”
• Family Court Chief Defenders List – List of public defense offices representing parents in family court matters in each New York county.
• Family Defense Right to Counsel

Advocacy Organizations

• JMacForFamilies – JmacForFamilies works to abolish the current punitive child welfare system and to strengthen the systems of supports that keep families and communities together.
• Families Together in NYS - Families Together in New York State represents, supports and advocates for youth and families voice in policy and systems change to ensure an equitable and inclusive journey that fosters belonging, wellness, and empowerment for all.
• Home - Hope585 – “We are a relationship-centered community where marginalized youth and their families hope, heal, and thrive.”
• NYCLU – “The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) advances civil rights and civil liberties so that all New Yorkers can live with dignity, liberty, justice, and equality. Founded in 1951 as the New York state affiliate of the national ACLU, our work is rooted in the unrealized promise of the Bill of Rights and the U.S. and New York State Constitutions.”
• Narrowing The Front Door to New York City's Child Welfare System – “An Anti-Racist Approach to Shrinking New York City’s Child Welfare System and Promoting Black Child, Family, and Community Wellbeing.”
• Informed Consent New York – “The Informed Consent NY Coalition is made up of people directly impacted by the family policing system, organizers, doulas, medical providers, social workers, public defenders, civil rights groups, and reproductive rights and justice organizations.”

News Outlets

• Family Defense Articles and Reports
• Family Integrity & Justice Quarterly: A Journal for Family Well-Being
• Rise Magazine – “Rise trains parents to write about their experiences with the child welfare system in order to support parents and parent advocacy and guide child welfare practitioners and policymakers in becoming more responsive to the families and communities they serve.”
• The Imprint - Youth and Family News - An independent daily news outlet focused on the child welfare and youth justice systems.