How to Find Support When You Are Facing the Threat of Child Protection
If you are a parent under investigation by child protective services or you have an open child welfare case, you may feel terrified, daunted, angry and lost in a process that is unfamiliar to you and in which the officials you are facing seem to hold all the information and all the power. You may find it hard to obtain adequate legal assistance. You may be scared that accessing any kind of help comes with risks to yourself and your family, because you don’t know if what you share will be used against you. Finding help, however, is often a critical part of improving the chances that your case has a positive outcome. Sometimes that help can come from a lawyer or independent social worker. Sometimes you may find help from a parent advocate. A parent advocate is a person with lived experience who has been through the child welfare his or herself and who has gained knowledge and received training to know how to help other parents going through the system.
This online resource was created for parents under investigation by child protective services and with open child welfare cases, and for anyone seeking to help parents. In this platform, we include information about parent advocacy services and organizations that provide legal advice in Australia, Canada, England, Scotland, and the United States.
Most of the organizations that you’ll find on this platform provide information and support from parent who have themselves faced the breakup of their families by the child welfare system—or the threat of it—and have become experts in how the system works and in helping other parents. Other organizations provide support from teams of parents with lived experience and independent social workers. Where we have found them, we have also included information about organizations that can provide you with legal advice and guidance.
We hope this online resource provides you with information so that you can more effectively advocate for your legal and human rights and so that you have the support you need to protect your family.
Please Note: For each of the four countries represented in this referral platform, the list of organizations represented makes up just a partial list. This is a pilot project. If visitors to our website find referral platform useful, our hope is to be able to add additional organizations from the countries covered as well as resources from new countries as we are able.
Disclaimer: None of the contributors to this referral platform or anyone else connected with IPAN is responsible for or liable for any damages suffered from use of the information contained in or linked to from this platform.