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UPCOMING EVENTS
February 7, 2023 – As a part of the UBalt Law in Focus Discussion Series, Shanta Trivedi will moderate a webinar for the UB Law in Focus Series, "Is the Indian Child Welfare Act Unconstitutional?". Discussing what's at stake in this legal challenge are UBalt Law Prof. Kimberly Wehle, who teaches Administrative Law and Federal Courts; April Youpee-Roll, a lawyer with the Los Angeles firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, and a member of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes; Prof. Neoshia Roemer, who teaches Native American Law and Family Law at the University of Idaho College of Law; and April Olson, a lawyer with Rothstein Donatelli in Tempe, AZ, who specializes in Indian law. Read more and register here.
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NEWS
November 15, 2022 CFCC co-hosted a panel session with The Maryland Child Alliance, an advocacy organization fighting to reduce and eventually eliminate child poverty in the state of Maryland and beyond, entitiled "Childhood Poverty is Not Just a Moral Failure: It's a Policy Choice". Nate Golden, Aubrey Edwards-Luce, and Windy Davis lead the conversation about a legislative proposal to help end childhood poverty by creating a child cash transfer. The panel discussed how a child cash transfer could benefit children, families, and our community. We believe that people are the experts of their own lives and that cash transfers are the most efficient way to help families to fulfill their daily needs and build a better future for their children. Check back for a link to the recording of the event.
September 29, 2022 In our first return to an in-person gathering since 2019, CFCC focused on the causes and consequences of family separation in our country. When children are separated from their parents based on parents’ immigration status or incarceration, or due to interventions by the child welfare system, the impact on children is severe and lasts throughout their lives. We are in the process of transcribing a video recording of the event and will post it to the symposium event website shortly, along with highlights from the program.
March 25, 2022 CFCC operates the Truancy Court Program (TCP) in some of Baltimore’s most underserved neighborhoods. Working to re-engage students and families with their schools, the TCP identifies and addresses the reasons why students are missing school, many of which relate to poverty. Many of our families rely on school meals that are not available when school is not in session. Your donation will help us provide food baskets to as many of our TCP students and families as possible before Spring Break. Each basket costs about $40 and will include enough food to share with the student's household. Thank you for helping to support Baltimore City students and their families during this difficult time!
February 2022 CFCC's releases a new Community Resource Guide for Families. Recognizing that families living in poverty are at greatest risk of involvement with the child welfare system and/or criminal legal system, CFCC publishes comprehensive guides to community-based resources offering help with issues that often lead to family separation through the foster care system or parental incarceration. We will publish new issue-targeted guides on a regular basis. Download the Community Resource Guide for Families.
October 2021 Bonnie Freeman has joined the team as TCP Social Worker, providing assessment, intervention and prevention services in order to assist students’ academic, social and emotional growth. In her previous role as a Baltimore City Public Schools social worker, she regularly worked with students in pre-K through high school to address Truancy related challenges. Bonnie’s extensive experience working to assess and develop in-school intervention in Baltimore City Schools will be an asset to the program.
September 2021 CFCC Welcomes Rohina Zavala as Truancy Court Program Coordinator, serving as the program’s liaison with judges and schools. A 2021 School of Law graduate, Rohina received the Saul Ewing Civil Advocacy Clinic Excellence Award for her work representing low-income individuals in Baltimore as a law student. Her knowledge and insights gained as a development coordinator at Blue Oak School drove her to attend law school, with a focus in public interest and education. Rohina is looking to using the legal education and experiences she gained from UBalt and her current work in the Baltimore City schools, paired with prior experiences in private school education, to help the TCP moving forward.
August 2021 CFCC Welcomes CFCC’s new Faculty Director, Assistant Professor of Law Shanta Trivedi. Shanta spent three and a half years as a clinical teaching fellow at UBalt’s Bronfein Family Law Clinic, and later served as a clinical teaching fellow in the Domestic Violence Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. On CFCC’s Blog , she talks about what drew her back to Baltimore and the opportunities she sees in her new role at CFCC as a way to continue her scholarship and advocacy on behalf of systemic change to bet ter serve the needs of families and children. She partners with CFCC’s Executive Director, Rebecca Stahl, who previously served as CFCC’s Deputy Director.
August 1, 2021 CFCC bids farewell to Founder Barbara Babb after 32 years at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Barbara retire as Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC). "Serving in these two capacities is the honor of a lifetime – something I could not have accomplished without the support of my loving family, extraordinary colleagues, and dedicated staff members." Read about our founder on CFCCs blog.
July 1, 2021 Longtime Faculty Member Robert Rubinson Will Build on the Strong Foundation Established by Founding Program Director, Barbara Babb. In a June 2021 interview, he said, “This program is an opportunity to educate and enable practitioners to do their jobs well, which is good for them individually and professionally, but also extends to the community at large. The consequences of excellent lawyering reverberate out into all sorts of places. That’s pretty special."
Learn more about longtime University of Baltimore School of Law faculty member Robert Rubinson and read the full interview on the CFCC blog.
April 15, 2021 The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers – Maryland Chapter has funded a new scholarship for the Post-J.D. Certificate in Family Law to improve the practice of family law and to encourage attorneys to enter this critical practice area. Scholarship awards are based on need and fund availability for students who enroll full-time in the certificate program and who remain in good academic standing in program coursework. Read more.
December 14, 2020 The Open Society Institute - Baltimore has awarded CFCC a grant of $25,000 to help support its Truancy Court Program.
November 30, 2020 CFCC has received a grant of $50,000 from the Charles Crane Family Foundation to support the operation of CFCC's Truancy Court Program in 2021-2022. The Charles Crane Family Foundation was CFCC's first donor in 2004 and has been a consistent donor since that time. We Thank the Charles Crane Family Foundation for their unwavering support.
October 2, 2020 Congratulations to CFCC Student Fellow (2020-2021) Jillianne Crescenzi, whose blog was highlighted in the UBalt Law News. In her blog, Therapeutic Jurisprudence Starts with 'Why' and Ends with 'How', Jillianne writhes about CFCC's approaches to social and legal issues using a therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) framework that allows our justice system to address complex issues with the goal of providing more therapeutic outcomes. Post a comment to Jullianne's blog and please share.
September 24, 2020 The Abell Foundation has awarded CFCC a grant of $50,000 to help support its Truancy Court Program. This is the first year that the Abell Foundation has provided funding to CFCC, and we thank them for support.
September 6, 2020 CFCC Welcomes Eleven New Student Fellows. CFCC's Student Fellows Program provides students with an in-depth examination of the policies and theories surrounding court reform in family law, including unified family courts, therapeutic jurisprudence, and the ecology of human development. In addition to a weekly two hour classroom component, students will take an active role in research and writing associated with the Center for Families, Children and the Courts' (CFCC's) projects. The research and writing will involve weekly one-hour meetings with either CFCC's Director and staff and might include areas such as the creation and evaluation of unified family courts in specific jurisdictions, juvenile justice, truancy and truancy courts, high conflict custody programs, and addiction and substance abuse as they affect families in courts. Particular subject-matter areas will depend upon the nature of CFCC's activities at any given time. Meet CFCC's 2020-2021 Student Fellows.
May 2020 The University of Baltimore Law Review is accepting paper proposals for the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC) fall symposium on therapeutic jurisprudence, set for October 9 and 10, 2020, in conjunction with celebrations for CFCC’s 20th anniversary. Deadline to submit papers for publication consideration is June 30, 2020. For more detail, see the Call for Papers.
March 27, 2020 During the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC) continues its important work on behalf of vulnerable children and families. Read more.
February 12, 2020 Mark Bell, the Director of Diversity Initiatives and Recruitment at the University of Baltimore School of Law, spoke at Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy for CFCC's Truancy Court Program. He spoke about the personal path to his current work and the importance of education along the way.
January 27, 2020 CFCC’s Truancy Court Program launches its spring term with programs at five Baltimore City schools: Academy of College & Career Exploration (ACCE), Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy, Furley Elementary School, Baltimore Design School and Mount Royal Elementary/Middle School.
January 14, 2020 The Spring Semester of the CFCC Student Fellows Program began, with 12 Student Fellows enrolled. Ten Student Fellows are continuing their experiential projects working as clerks and in the restorative practice circles for the Truancy Court Program. Two Student Fellows will continue with research begun in the Fall Semester on family law topicsPlease save the date for this important day-long conversation on an issue that has disproportionate effects on our most vulnerable children.
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PRESS
April 22, 2020 CFCC’s Director, Professor Barbara Babb, was interviewed by The Daily Record for a story titled “No easy answers: Abiding by custody agreements in the time of COVID-19. ”
March 4, 2021 CFCC announces the availability for purchase of its Benchbook for Family C ourts on Substance Use Disorders, Second Edition, (Benchbook). Read more.
January 30, 2020 CFCC’s Director, Professor Barbara Babb, was interviewed in a story about the case of missing children Joshua Vallow and Tylee Ryan pending in the Madison County, Idaho, Family Court. Read more.
January 27, 2020 CFCC's Director, Professor Barbara Babb, was quoted in The Maryland Daily Record Family Law Update discussing de facto parents' rights and the Kpetigo decision expanding de facto parent status to stepparents. Read more.
November 20, 2019 CFCC responded to a recent The Baltimore Sun editorial about preventing childhood trauma. CFCC’s Truancy Court Program identifies and addresses the connection between trauma and truancy.
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PAST EVENTS
January 17, 2022 - CFCC and CCJR hosted a conversation with Kristin Henning, Blume Professor of Law and director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law. Professor Henning and the discussion of her book, “The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth (Pantheon/Penguin Random House, 2021), which analyzes the foundations of racist policing in America and has received rave reviews in the Washington Post and New York Times Book Review.
Nov. 15, 2022 -- CFCC hosted The Maryland Child Alliance, an advocacy organization fighting to reduce and eventually eliminate child poverty in the state of Maryland and beyond, for a discussion of a legislative proposal that would provide child cash transfers to needy families.
April 7, 2022 – CFCC Faculty Director, Shanta Trivedi presented a keynote address on the harm of child removal at the Iowa State Bar Association Juvenile Law Conference, virtual.April 8, 2022 – CFCC Faculty Director, Shanta Trivedi conducted a workshop on trauma-informed systemic advocacy with Professor Sarah Katz of Temple University Beasley School of Law and Nenutzka Villamar, Chief Attorney, Parental Defense Division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender at the American Bar Association National Parent Representation Conference in McClean, VA.
March 29, 2022 CFCC’s second spring webinar provided important information for families on the rights of parents/caregivers and students related to school discipline and special education services. Hosted by CFCC Executive Director Rebecca Stahl with panelists Spencer Hall, CFCC TCP Attorney, who discussed the legal rights of students and families when faced with disciplinary action, and Megan Berger, Assistant Managing Attorney at Disability Rights Maryland, who spoke to the disproportionate impact on students with disabilities and additional legal protections in place for students who receive special education services.
April 8, 2021 The University of Baltimore School of Law Sayraand Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts hosts celebrated CFCC's 20th Anniversary and CFCC's Truancy Court Program's 15th Anniversary. We invite you to visit CFCC's 20th Anniversary Wall, to view CFCC's history and ongoing work through a collection of photos, videos, and articles.
February 18, 2020 As a part of the UBalt Law in Focus Discussion Series, Prof. Barbara Babb, founder and director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts, moderated a discussion on therapeutic jurisprudence. Our panel of experts discussed the topic: Prof. David Wexler , University of Puerto Rico School of Law and president, International Society of Therapeutic Jurisprudence; The Hon. Miriam Hutchins , District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City (ret.); Amanda Odorimah, Esq. , Hearns Law Group, LLP; Spencer Hall, Esq. , CFCC Truancy Court Program Coordinator; and Jasmine Martinez , current UBalt Law student.
Click here to view a recording of The Caring Lawyer: Applying the Principles of Therapeutic Jurisprudence.December 2–5, 2019 CFCC partnered with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts to present two family law trainings: Essential Elements of Parenting Coordination, led by Debra K. Carter, PhD, and Critical Issues in Child Custody: To Share or Not to Share?, led by Philip M. Stahl, PhD, ABPP (Forensic). Learn more.