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 |
| VII. | Contact |
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.
We are proud to be part of the Institute for Child and Adolescent Research and Evaluation (ICARE), a University-wide initiative that links together all those at University of Florida working on children’s issues. With our partners in ICARE, we are engaged in multidisciplinary research, demonstration projects and policy analysis to improve the systems serving our children and families.
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 5) and assemble a state-of-the-art library collection for the study of child and family law and policy.
Barbara Bennett Woodhouse
Director, Center on Children & Families, David H. Levin Chair in Family Law, Co-Director, UF Institute for Child & Adolescent Research, Evaluation
Download the Center on Children and Families Newsletter