Centers and Clinics

Center on Children and Families


Center on Children and Families

I. Activities
II. Faculty
III. Scholarship
IV. Links
V. Conference/ Events
VI. Advisory Board
VII. Working Paper
VIII. Juvenile Justice Project
IX. Contact

Events:

Fourth Annual Weyrauch Distinguished Lecture in Family Law
Professor Sanford N. Katz, The Darald and Juliet Libby Chair, Boston College Law School

October 14, 2009
University of FLorida Levin College of Law
Gainesville, FL
Flyer [78KB PDF]


The mission of the Center on Children and Families is to promote the highest quality of advocacy, teaching and scholarship in the areas of child & familiy law and policy.

We believe that children, as the least powerful of our citizens, are most in need of high quality advocacy. They must depend on adults – parents, teachers, doctors and lawyers – to vindicate their rights to protection from abuse and to overcome barriers to education and health care. Children cannot lobby for legislation or retain high-powered lawyers and costly experts. While great strides have been made in educating family lawyers, we believe that too few professionals have the breadth of training necessary to advocate effectively for children and their families.

Our Center is committed to filling the need for high quality advocacy by creating programs and resources that bring an interdisciplinary, evidence-based and child-centered approach to issues of children’s law and policy. Through its Certificate in Family Law, Child Welfare Clinic, Annual Conference, Publications, and Student Fellowships, the Center on Children and Families is training a new generation of advocates for a new era.

Goals

The Center goals are 1) to promote quality scholarship on issues of importance to children and their families 2) train a new generation of advocates for children and their families 3) educate children about their rights and responsibilities in a free society 4) promote interdisciplinary and child-centered methods for studying systems serving children and their families.

Juvenile Justice Project

The Center on Children and Families at the University of Florida Levin College of Law is launching the Juvenile Justice Project, an effort to benefit children locally, statewide and nationally by focusing on the juvenile justice system. We will devote ourselves to research, advocacy, conferences, workshops and projects in this area and welcome collaboration with others.

We invite you to visit our Web site. Our first conference will be February 19 and 20 2010, and we have confirmed as our plenary speakers Geoffrey Canada, the founder and president of the Harlem Children's Zone, the innovative project profiled by Paul Tough in Whatever It Takes (2008), and Shay Bilchik, Director of the Juvenile Justice Reform Project at Georgetown, and former president of the Child Welfare League of America. For further information about the first conference, which will focus on issues of prevention and avoidance, and to respond to the Call for Papers, please go to our website. Registration information to attend the conference will be available in fall 2009.

We also invite you to read our report about the controversy over shackling juveniles, The Shackling of Juvenile Offenders: The Debate in Juvenile Justice Policy [493KB PDF] and the Juvenile Justice Guide [884KB PDF]

Nancy Dowd Nancy E. Dowd
Director, Center on Children & Families, David H. Levin Chair in Family Law

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