Interdisciplinary Center for Family and Child Advocacy

The Interdisciplinary Center is a joint project of the Graduate School of Social Services, Fordham Law School, and Fordham s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology.  The Center's mission is to promote collaboration between law, social work and psychology, in the areas of child abuse and neglect and domestic violence.  The Center meets this mission through its educational initiatives, community partnerships, and research. 

This year the Center's field placement graduate education initiative enabled 26 social work and law students to participate in a wide variety of community-based placements in New York City, New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester, and Connecticut. Examples of placements opportunities include Family Court, the Coalition Against Child Abuse and Neglect, the Legal Aid Society, Lawyers for Children, and Alternatives to Domestic Violence. A special roundtable for placement supervisors began to crystallize the issues facing professionals in the community who are striving to work collaboratively to more effectively serve clients. Two interdisciplinary electives were offered for 60 social work and law students Domestic Violence: Law and Social Work and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Child Abuse and Neglect. Social Work students participating in the interdisciplinary field placements and taking the interdisciplinary electives may now receive a special certificate in Social Work and Law. A model Child and Family Litigation Clinic provides an opportunity for social work, law and psychology students to work collaboratively representing families. 

The Center meets its community partnership mission by working with professionals and community members for critical reforms in New York City's child protective and domestic violence systems. This year the Center published in the Fordham Law Review the recommendations and reports of its April 2001 conference on parents and the child welfare system; led a new interdisciplinary task force to implement the conference recommendations; gave numerous trainings and presentations to professionals, on a national and local level, on overcoming barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration, including tools to address ethical conflicts; served as a consultant to other educational institutions seeking to develop interdisciplinary education initiatives; and began exploring the conference recommendation that it host a consortium of parent advocacy organizations. More than 200 professionals, community members, and students attended a special symposium on Litigation and Social Change based on The Lost Children of Wilder, The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care by New York Times Reporter Nina Bernstein.  A new videotape, now in production, will be used to educate policy makers and the public about the needs of families involved with the child welfare system.

For further information please contact  

           Kathryn Krase,  Associate Director                                                  

           Lincoln Center, Lowenstein building, Room 903

           Telephone: 212-636-7787  Fax: 212-636-7349  

           E-mail: krase@fordham.edu