Pine Tree Legal launches child aid program

From:bangornews.com
Date:October 3, 2003
By Judy Harrison

PORTLAND - With the help of a well-known children's rights advocate, Pine Tree Legal Assistance announced Thursday its launch of KIDS Legal Aid of Maine. The new program, to be phased in over the next five years throughout the state, will provide legal representation to low-income children in courts, school administrative proceedings, Medicaid service disputes and other arenas where children's safety or well-being is threatened.


Scott Hollander, a Pittsburgh lawyer and executive director of the legal advocacy program KidsVoice, spoke Thursday in Portland to kick off the program. The CBS television series "The Guardian" was created by Hollander's brother, David Hollander, and is loosely based on the lawyer's work as a legal advocate for children.

PTLA's goal is to raise $500,000 over the next five years to support this unit, creating a network of lawyer specialists in each of its six offices around the state. For the initial phase of the program, $86,000 has been raised from the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, the Maine Bar Foundation, the Edmund S. Muskie Foundation and the Mertz-Gilmore Foundation.

"Many people see a child's problems and respond to them without recognizing that the root cause has a legal remedy and should be addressed in that way," Nan Heald, PTLA's executive director, said in a statement released earlier this week. "Children are perhaps the most vulnerable constituency in the justice system because there are so few contexts in which their interests are specifically addressed. Equally important, our experience shows that advocating for children has the ripple effect of improving outcomes for the entire family."

Hollander said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon that his experience shows that lawyers and other advocates for children could have an impact and create better possibilities for children and their families. He also said that by seeking services tailored to the specific needs of children and their families, states could save money in times of tight budgets.

"The reality is that caseworkers aren't free to advise what's best for the individual child," he said. "They can't make something happen outside the regulations. As attorneys, we don't have to worry about regulations or what department policy is. We can look at what the child's needs are. The courts are bound by law, not by the regulations or policy of a state agency."

Hollander said that KidsVoice teams attorneys with full-time professionals who have backgrounds in mental health treatment, foster care and other issues faced by children. The team comes to a consensus about what recommendation to take to a judge.

The success of "The Guardian," now in its second season, has made Hollander's job easier. The attorney, who works as a technical adviser to the show, said that he used to spend 10 minutes explaining to people what he does. Now, they just say, "Oh, like on 'The Guardian,'" according to Hollander.

The mission of KIDS Legal Aid of Maine would be similar to Hollander's program in Pennsylvania, according to PTLA. The program's goal is to provide fee legal assistance to low-income children in Maine, helping them access educational services, health care, mental health and social services and safe, affordable housing.

Heald, as head of PTLA, is not the only person advocating more legal services for children. Leigh Saufley, chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, has identified the legal needs of children as a top priority for the Maine court system in both her 2002 and 2003 State of the Judiciary speeches. This year, she urged the Legislature to ensure that children "have a voice in the matters that affect their very lives."

Consistent with that goal, KIDS' Legal Aid activities will include legal advocacy, community education, community participation and in-service training to groups and advocates who work with low-income children, according to Heald.

A founding committee made up of Maine lawyers, physicians and community leaders has been formed to help raise private funds for the program. Acting chairwoman Patricia Ramsay of Yarmouth acknowledged this week that times are tough for all nonprofits.

"Of course it might be better to launch this project when the economic landscape is better," she said. "But this is just too important to wait that long."