Family Legal Advocacy and Supports Clinic

A couple recveiving counselingCivil legal issues that go unaddressed can de-stabilize families. By providing legal assistance, families can address issues like child support, guardianship, and eviction, which can help lessen the stress and the financial burden of unresolved legal issues – and most importantly, put them in a better position to safely care for their children in-home.

Across the country, preventive legal advocacy programs have proven to be effective at addressing this service gap. These programs provide comprehensive advocacy that can help families address their civil legal needs, including:

  • Housing and income insecurity,
  • Employment challenges,
  • Custody agreements and guardianship,
  • and more

By helping to resolve legal issues and offering referrals to social supports, these programs have proven to be critical in preventing the removal of children and unnecessary child welfare involvement with families. 

What is the Family Legal Advocacy and Supports Clinic?

The Family Legal Advocacy and Supports Clinic (FLASC) is a multidisciplinary legal clinic serving families, communities and law and social work students. The clinic was established in 2022 by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and the Children’s Court Improvement Project in partnership with the University of Wisconsin Law School and the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work

FLASC has two primary goals:

  1. To deliver high-quality legal and social support services to stabilize families and prevent deeper involvement in the child welfare system.
  2. To deliver high-quality education to law and social work students through hands-on experience working with families.

FLASC partnership includes:

  • University of Wisconsin–Madison Law School and Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work,
  • Children’s Court Improvement Project,
  • Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, and
  • Columbia, Dane, Green, Jefferson, Rock and Sauk Counties.

Making a difference

For families

FLASC is designed to support families in-home by assisting families before there is a removal. FLASC can provide a variety of legal services and social supports, all of which can be responsive to the concerns that brought the family to the attention of child welfare.

The law and social work students working in the Clinic meet with each family to review the full scope of needs, with a focus on preventing potential removals or other unnecessary child welfare interventions. If FLASC is not able to address a family’s needs, the students connect them to other services in the community that can provide assistance.

For the current and future workforce

FLASC is a resource for child welfare professionals to use as they partner with families to identify and address their needs. Working with FLASC to connect families with needed legal services and social supports can help prevent further need for child welfare involvement.

FLASC is also a meaningful opportunity for law and social work students to learn about and gain experience in child welfare. In a time where there is a shortage of professionals in this field, offering a space for future graduates to develop their passion for this work is invaluable.

For local child welfare agencies

The goal of FLASC is to prevent removals and keep families together, as research shows supporting families together in their home leads to better health, more stable employment, reduced criminal justice involvement and other positive outcomes. In addition to these impacts on families, supporting families in-home is also, over time, significantly less costly than out-of-home care. Increasingly, research shows that preventive services can result in long-term savings by avoiding more costly forms of intervention down the line.

Want to learn more? 

Any questions can be sent to the Putting Families First inbox.

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