30 Years of Innovation

As we celebrate our 30th anniversary, we’re shining a spotlight on three pillars that have powered our work for decades:  tenacity, innovation and impact.

In our Spotlight on Innovation, we share how we are solving children’s urgent problems today and driving lasting change for future generations. Whether a family is facing homelessness or changes to federal benefits mean children are at risk of going hungry, we bring fresh thinking to our work so we can respond to their changing needs, forge a better path when the current approach falls short and move quickly when an unexpected crisis hits.

• When Innovative Partnerships Change Children’s Lives
• Challenging Bias, Changing Systems, Protecting Families
• When a Crisis Hits, We Act

When Innovative Partnerships Change Children’s Lives

Nearly twenty-five years ago, Children’s Law Center embraced a bold idea: add a lawyer to a child’s medical team. That early innovation improved the lives of tens of thousands of children and led to city-wide policy changes that benefit all children.

Today it is common knowledge that our health is shaped by what we eat and where we live. That understanding was far less common in 2002, when we placed a lawyer inside the primary care clinic at Children’s National. When families saw our lawyer as part of the health care team, they trusted her more.

As pediatricians learned how a lawyer solves problems, they began asking patients new questions that uncovered legal needs affecting children’s health.

Challenging Bias, Changing Systems, Protecting Families

Every day we meet children who are failing in school because addressing their learning disabilities is given less attention than educating their typically developing peers. Or Black and Latino children in the ER because decades of government neglect let dangerous housing conditions flourish in low-income neighborhoods.

Bias can take on many forms and is often at the root of these children’s difficulties. Whether children are feeling the ongoing impact of our country’s long history of race-based segregation or are being bullied because they are LGBTQ+, helping them thrive requires understanding biases and challenging the systems that maintain them.

At Children’s Law Center:

• We start with addressing our own biases. We believe that cultural humility, giving and receiving feedback and conflict resolution are core skills that we all need. We create learning opportunities for staff and embed these core competencies into our performance reviews. We create protocols that require lawyers to pause at critical points in a case to identify their potential biases, to give reasons for their conclusions and to test their assumptions with a supervisor.
• We use appellate advocacy to challenge the shortcuts and assumptions that can lead to biased outcomes, creating precedent that requires courts to rely on facts rather than stereotypes.
• We fight to change laws and regulations when we see they are having a disparate impact on the communities we serve.

Learn about our disrupting racism strategy and read about our overhaul of a decades-old law that decides when the government needs to intervene if a child’s safety is at risk:

When a Crisis Hits, We Act

Children’s Law Center has built the tools, partnerships and legal strategies to respond quickly when children and families face sudden threats and instability.

Children’s Law Center responds rapidly when children and families face urgent challenges. Over the years, we’ve met crises with practical support, decisive legal action and strong partnerships.

Interested in helping DC children?

Make a gift today to help protect DC children and families from the impact of federal and local budget cuts. Your support strengthens our tenacity, fuels innovation and delivers lasting impact.