Projects, Units & Initiatives

Adolescent Practice Teams

The expertise and tenacity of our borough-based Adolescent Practice Teams (APT) empower older youth in foster care, ensuring that they receive every available support and legal entitlement while in placement and as they transition to adulthood and independence.

Our Work

Regular citywide meetings are held to share resources and practice updates, collaborate on litigation strategies, and develop training and advocacy tools to ensure the highest-quality legal representation for all of JRP’s adolescent clients. Within the trial offices, APT members offer training, disseminate resources and practice updates, and consult on cases. APT members have also: accompanied clients to NYCHA appointments; helped clients fill out housing, college, and financial aid applications; connected clients with camps, activities, SAT prep, and job opportunities; and intervened with agencies, caregivers, and others to support and advocate for adolescent clients who are in crisis.

Our Impact

The representation and advocacy of APT staff and attorneys helped:

Advocate for a client over 21 struggling with mental health and stable employment to remain on Continuation of Care & Support Beyond Age 21 (CCS21+) until permanent housing became available.
Collaborate with a community partner to advocate for former foster youth who accrued rental arrears and encountered other issues in his supportive housing program.
Reunify a mother with her son after advocating for an early end to the mother’s probation and a resolution to her immigration issues
A young mother, dealing with serious illness, secure specialized housing for her and her children as well as attain job training and enrollment in a GED program
Negotiate the deferment of college enrollment for a young woman until she was ready, and the establishment of adequate support systems ready to assist her on her first day.
Advocate for our APT client to be reunited with her sibling who was adopted.
Advocate for our 18-year-old client to re-enter foster care after becoming homeless and requesting our assistance. Upon re-entry our client focused on graduating high school, getting his driver’s license, and applying for housing.
Petition Civil Court for a name change for our 18-year-old client. Advocated and worked with our client to change all vital documents to reflect their legal name and gender.

Partnerships

APT members are a group of Juvenile Rights Practice staff and supervisors with a special interest in serving JRP’s adolescent clients. They are paralegals, social workers, and attorneys from JRP’s trial offices and its central SLLRU (Special Litigation and Law Reform Unit). APT members are involved in numerous workgroups, committees, coalitions, and partnerships, including:

Fordham Interdisciplinary Parent Representation Project
Family Court Teen Day committees
Youth Panels
Fostering Youth Success Alliance (FYSA)
Little Essentials
The Legal Aid Society YLB (Youth Leadership Board)

APT members train JRP staff on entitlements, healthcare, education, and housing for adolescents in and leaving foster care, as well as interviewing skills, resources for expecting and parenting youth, opposing warrants and handling arrests, and other topics.

APT members advocate for reforms to laws and policies impacting adolescents and young people in and leaving foster care, including testimony before the NY City Council and NYS Assembly, drafting legislation, commenting on NYC and NYS policies and regulations, and meeting with NYC and NYS agencies to effectuate change.