In support of children and youth in need of legal and social services, please consider Legal Services for Children (LSC) when you have the opportunity to suggest cy pres award recipients. For the past 47 years, LSC has provided free services to young people in cases involving abuse, exploitation, homelessness, deportation and school expulsion. Cy pres awards make a huge impact on LSC’s ability to offer intensive services to children and youth who are vulnerable to these serious forms of harm.
In recent years, we have received a number of cy pres awards, which has enabled us to serve more children and youth. As a child advocacy organization that serves low-income children, we qualify under Section 384 of the California Civil Code of Procedure’s definition of permissible award recipients: “child advocacy programs, or nonprofit organizations providing civil legal services to the indigent.”
LSC combines legal advocacy with social work services to comprehensively meet the needs of our clients. LSC pioneered this interdisciplinary approach that is considered best practice in juvenile law today. LSC serves over 1,000 low-income youth in the Bay Area each year, free of charge. LSC’s attorneys and legal advocates represent children in immigration, guardianship, dependency (foster care), and school discipline cases. Our social workers provide crisis intervention, case management, counseling, and psychosocial assessments. LSC is a well-known resource among local youth-serving organizations and legal service providers.
LSC’s work has made an impact on policy throughout California, such as our work in advocating for fairer school discipline systems and laws and our work advocating for protections for recently arrived immigrant children. We have trained attorneys throughout the state on immigration, education, trauma, and child development, to ensure that children throughout the state are receiving holistic, trauma-informed legal services. LSC also runs a training program for law students—to train the next generation of advocates to provide excellent legal services to children.
In order to provide such intensive services, participate in larger advocacy, and provide support and training for others around the state, LSC depends on unrestricted funding. A cy pres award can make an enormous difference—ensuring that we are able to offer the level of services that are needed to the children who need it most, regardless of whether they fall within a specific grant or government contract.
We appreciate your consideration of LSC and our vital services for low-income youth when recommending future cy pres awards.
If you would like more information, please contact Development Director Joyce Lupack at Joyce@lsc-sf.org or (415) 780-6345. Thank you.
