Social Worker/ Family Advocate, Family Defense Practice (Queens)

The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. In 2024, CFR will expand our family defense practice to Richmond County. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Our goal is to defend and protect our clients’ rights, reduce the harm of family separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in the foster system.

CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense with a model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct personal experience of being investigated and prosecuted by ACS. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams and now has 7 parent advocates working in all three of our family defense locations. CFR’s Community Advocacy Project represents parents during a child protective investigation (to avoid court involvement where possible) and assists parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records.

As an agency committed to securing justice for families, we built the Youth Defense practice (YDP) to defend youth at risk of family separation through incarceration. YDP uses the same interdisciplinary model to represent youth being prosecuted in Queens and Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in Delinquency proceedings in Family Court. CFR’s Home for Good program provides legal and social work services to CFR clients in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters, to afford clients an efficient and well-coordinated one-stop solution to a range of issues that threaten family stability. 

Recognized as experts in our fields, we annually train over 500 practitioners in the city, state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and interdisciplinary representation, and we provide community based “Know Your Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that reduce the harm of family separation, and promote parent engagement and justice for youth and families.

CFR's Family Defense Practice has an immediate opening for a Social Worker or Family Advocate in our Queens office.

Primary responsibilities will include:

• Work as part of CFR’s interdisciplinary legal teams (comprised of attorneys, social work staff, paralegals and parent advocates) to provide our clients with high quality legal defense and meet objectives such as keeping children out of foster care, shortening lengths of stay for children in foster care, promoting quality visiting arrangements and insuring that families receive services that are well-tailored to expediting safe and lasting reunification

• Provide direct social work support and advocacy to clients

• Conduct intake and client interviews, assess clients’ needs and goals, and ensure clients are engaged in appropriate and meaningful service plans

• Refer clients for necessary services

• Maintain contact with service providers to obtain letters for court

• Advocate for clients at Administration for Children’s Services and foster care agency conferences

• Participate in team meetings as well as administrative meetings within CFR

• Keep up to date client legal notes and entering data in CFR’s database

Social Workers at CFR can expect intensive, interdisciplinary training on CFR's Cornerstone Advocacy model, the family policing system, family court, client interviewing and other critical skills. Career development opportunities for Social Workers may include building skills to eventually supervise MSW interns, conduct trainings and participate in CFR's policy initiatives. Objectives of the teams include shortening lengths of stay for children in foster care, promoting quality visiting arrangements and ensuring families receive services that are well-tailored to expediting safe and lasting reunification.

Family Advocates receive supervision from Social Work Supervisors and are expected to keep case data and client legal notes, and files up to date. Family Advocates joining CFR can expect intensive, interdisciplinary training on CFR’s Cornerstone Advocacy model, the family policing system, family court, client interviewing and other critical skills. CFR is dedicated to providing ongoing career development in all these areas in a variety of training forums for all staff.

Starting salaries (0 years of experience):

Family Advocate: $59,900

Social Worker (unlicensed): $65,100

Social Worker (licensed): $71,400

• Social Worker applicants must have an LMSW or have an MSW degree and be eligible and willing to become licensed within ten months of hire.

• Family Advocate applicants must have a Bachelor’s degree, preferably with some prior experience with the NYC family policing system, education, housing or public benefits’ systems or other social justice experience.

• Prior experience working in or with the NYC family policing system or family court is preferred.

• Fluency in Spanish or other languages is preferred. 

• Experience with public benefits, education, housing or immigration is all desirable.

• Individuals who apply should be able to demonstrate strong interpersonal and communication skills, a commitment to interdisciplinary representation of parents and a desire to share in both the exhilaration and challenges of a growing endeavor.