What We Do
Legal Services for Children provides free, trauma-informed legal and social work services to San Francisco Bay Area children and youth who are seeking a safe and stable home with loving caregivers, access to legal immigration status, freedom from detention, and access to education.
Our staff of attorneys and social workers specialize in working with youth who have experienced trauma. LSC attorneys represent youth in immigration, foster care, guardianship, emancipation, and school discipline matters. Our social workers provide clinical case management, psychosocial assessment, linkage to services, and client advocacy. Together, they work to build young people’s strengths, networks of support, and resiliency, so they can address trauma and continue on healthy, functional paths to adulthood.
Alongside our legal and social work services, LSC
- advances policy changes to improve systemic conditions affecting children and youth
- recruits, trains, and mentors a panel of pro bono attorneys who provide 2,000 hours of free legal assistance to clients each year
- provides outreach, trainings, and technical assistance to other youth-serving organizations
LSC has exclusively served children and young people throughout its 50-year (and counting!) history.