Empowering Families with High Quality Legal Representation
Ensuring everyone receives zealous advocacy for parents and youth involved in the child welfare system
How We'll Help
The Family Defense Council wants to scale your impact
Unlock Funding
Helping organizations secure the resources to launch interdisciplinary programs and pilots that can lead to more statewide offices of parent and child representation, modeled after programs in states like Oklahoma's Office of Family Representation.
Data & Best Practices
Sharing evidence and stories via outlets like the Community In-Site Podcast that demonstrate the impact of high-quality interdisciplinary defense, equipping policymakers and program leaders with actionable insights.
Free & Discounted Technology
Offering grant-supported software and services to help organizations get started with Sunlight and complementary partner solutions in payroll, accounting, fundraising, marketing, and more.
What types of projects are you interested in supporting?
We want to launch and expand programs that are focused on some the following areas:
Expanding the usage of multi-disciplinary legal defense teams for parents and youth
Reducing necessary court delays by improving engagement across parties
Notifying parents and children of court hearings to increase attendance
Providing "Know Your Rights" educational offerings to parents, youth, and caregivers
Providing training to system leaders, judges, attorneys, caseworkers, GAL/CASA and other professionals
Strengthening data collection to inform evidence-based best practices
Supporting collaboration between court systems, child welfare systems, health plans, CASA programs, and partner community based organizations
Maximizing state's 4E funding reimbursements for legal representation
Implementing best practice standards like ACF's JCAMP measures]
This list is not exhaustive so if there is something you're working on that you think we should know about, please know we'd love for you to reach out when we open calls for applications.
Who is behind the Family Defense Council?
The founders of Sunlight have pledged a portion of their company's equity, profits, and time to support the expansion of the Family Defense movement. More partners are joining the council.
Stay Connected
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"Investing in high quality legal representation protects vulnerable children and families. We're excited to launch the Family Defense Council to support zealous, multi-disciplinary, and client-centered advocacy that all children and families deserve."
Ryan O'Donnell
| CEO & Co-Founder
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