Parent Advocate - Cafl

The Children and Family Law Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the Massachusetts state public defender agency, is seeking applications from individuals with lived experience for a Parent Advocate position in our Worcester Office. This is a full-time position (35 hours/week) and is benefits eligible.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION MISSION STATEMENT

CPCS is committed to protecting the fundamental constitutional and human rights of our assigned clients through zealous advocacy, community-oriented defense, and the fullness of excellent legal representation. We are dedicated to building and maintaining strong professional relationships, while striving to accept, listen to and respect the diverse circumstances of each client, as we dedicate ourselves to meeting their individual needs. It is our CPCS mission to achieve these goals, and in furtherance thereof, we embrace and endorse diversity, equity and inclusion as our core values as we maintain a steadfast commitment to: (1) Ensure that CPCS management and staff members represent a broad range of human differences and experience; (2) Provide a work climate that is respectful and supports success; and (3) Promote the dignity and well-being of all staff members. CPCS leadership is responsible for ensuring equity, diversity, and inclusion. The ability to achieve these goals with any level of certainty is ultimately the responsibility of each member of the CPCS community.

AGENCY OVERVIEW

CPCS is the state agency in Massachusetts responsible for providing an attorney when the state or federal constitution or a state statute requires the appointment of an attorney for a person who cannot afford to retain one. The agency provides representation in criminal, delinquency, youthful offender, family regulation, guardianship, mental health, sexually dangerous person, and sex offender registry cases, as well as in appeals and post-conviction and post-judgment proceedings related to those matters.

The clients we represent are diverse across every context imaginable and bring many unique cultural dimensions to the matters we address. This reality creates a critical need for CPCS staff to be culturally competent and able to work well with people of different races, ethnicities, genders and/or sexual orientation identities, abilities, and limited English proficiency, among other protected characteristics.

DIVISION OVERVIEW

Attorneys working with CPCS?s Children and Family Law Division represent parents, children and older youth, custodians, and guardians in cases in which the Department of Children and Families (DCF) is seeking custody of children and a limited number of other civil cases relating to families. Attorneys appointed to these cases represent clients in care and protection matters (known elsewhere as dependency or abuse and neglect cases) and in termination of parental rights, guardianship-of-a-minor, and child requiring assistance cases. Nearly all of these cases are heard in the Juvenile Court.

CAFL?s legal advocacy plays a critical role in cases that affect families. For a parent involved in a care and protection case, having a skilled CAFL legal team may mean the difference between the family?s reunification and the termination of parental rights ? the ?death penalty of family law.? For a teenager who is the subject of a truancy case, CAFL?s advocacy may secure the special education services that enable the client to succeed in school and avoid being placed in a foster home with strangers. For siblings looking for stability after the court has freed them for adoption, the CAFL attorney will fight to ensure that they are provided a permanent home that allows them to stay together.

POSITION OVERVIEW

Parent Advocates are parents who have navigated the child welfare system and utilize their lived experience and unique perspective to support parents who have open Care and Protection and Children Requiring Assistance (?CRA?) cases. Parent Advocates work alongside the multidisciplinary representation team, consisting of staff Trial Attorneys and Social Workers, to support parents. Data suggests family reunification occurs sooner for families whose legal teams have both a Social Worker and Parent Advocate. The use of Parent Advocates recognizes, and has the potential to address, the inherent power differential between parents and professionals, including state case workers and members of the legal team.

The Parent Advocate must adhere to the rules of confidentiality under the attorney-client relationship. The Parent Advocate will be supervised jointly by the Attorney in Charge (?AIC?) and the CAFL Director of Social Work (?DSW?) and will be expected to meet regularly with the AIC and DSW as well as with Trial Attorneys and Social Workers on case assignments. Cases will be assigned to the Parent Advocate will be determined after a conversation between the Attorney in Charge or Supervising Attorney and the assigned Social Worker.

MINIMUM ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS

Applicants for the Parent Advocate position must have:

• Personal, lived experience navigating the child welfare system and the accompanying court process;
• At least one year of full-time work experience, or equivalent part-time experience, or an equivalent combination of education, experience, and skills;
• Access to reliable transportation in order to travel to courts, clients, and other locations that are not easily accessible by public transportation; and,
• Access to home internet access sufficient to work remotely.

Candidates will only be considered if their child welfare case has been closed for at least 1-year by the time of their start date.

QUALIFICATIONS/SKILLS

• Strongly committed to preserving, strengthening, and uplifting families;
• Strict adherence to confidentiality as part of the legal team;
• Ability to learn and work independently;
• Highly organized and attentive to deadlines;
• Commitment to self-reflection and to sharing lived experiences with clients in a compassionate, motivating, and relevant way;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to interact effectively with diverse colleagues at all levels of the agency, and the ability to work as an effective team member;
• Strong communication, organizational, and detail skills;
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite; and,
• Foreign language skills are preferred.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Meeting with Trial Attorneys and Social Workers as a three-person team to discuss case assignments and develop plans to engage parents;
• Interacting frequently and consistently with parents through face-to-face meetings, home visits, phone calls, text messages, and emails depending on client availability and preference;
• Effectively sharing their personal story to connect, engage, and motivate parents;
• Researching, sharing, and helping access community resources for parents;
• Supporting parents at critical meetings and appointments;
• Working with parents on skill building, such as communication, scheduling, and advocating with service providers;
• Collaborating with other professionals serving the family such as caseworkers and treatment providers while maintaining the appropriate level of confidentiality for a legal defense team;
• Updating information on any interactions with the client through the case management program, Zelly on a regular basis; and,
• Other duties as assigned.

EEO Statement

The Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, sex, disability, religion, age, veteran or military status, genetic information, gender identity, or sexual orientation as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other applicable federal and state statutes and organizational policies. Applicants who have questions about equal employment opportunity or who need reasonable accommodations can contact the Chief Human Resources Officer, Sandra DeBow-Huang, at sdebow@publiccounsel.net