The Center for Children’s Advocacy has an opening for a Senior Attorney and Project Director for its Racial Justice Project. The Racial Justice Project’s mission is to increase access to equitable services for children and youth of color and defend the civil rights of children and youth of color who are subjected to policies and practices that result in racial disparities in educational opportunity, child welfare and juvenile justice involvement. Its advocacy includes collaborative systems change, administrative advocacy, legislative advocacy and litigation.
The Center for Children’s Advocacy (CCA) is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to fighting for the legal rights of Connecticut’s most vulnerable children. To learn more about the Center for Children’s Advocacy, please visit CCA’s website at www.cca-ct.org. CCA’s mission is to protect and promote the legal rights of Connecticut’s low-income children and youth so they have equitable opportunities for good health, a quality education and a successful transition to adulthood. CCA provides legal representation and advocates for system reforms to ensure at-risk children’s basic needs are met and they receive appropriate services from the juvenile justice, education, child welfare, health care and court systems.
CCA is committed to the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. CCA is also committed to advancing racial justice, cultural competence and anti-racism practices and policies internally as well as in the communities it serves.
Responsibilities:
• Lead Racial and Ethnic Disparities Reduction Committees in Bridgeport, Hamden, Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury, cities and towns that have high rates of racial and ethnic disparities in chronic absenteeism and juvenile justice involvement. Facilitate work of Committee members, including school system, law enforcement, child welfare and juvenile court personnel, to analyze data and identify and reform local level policies and practices that result in youth of color being treated more punitively by the education and juvenile justice systems in those cities and towns.
• Collaborate with other CCA attorneys, other legal advocacy organizations, community partners and parents and youth with lived experience to identify and address systemic policies and practices that contribute to inequities in education, child welfare and the juvenile justice system, and engage in systemic advocacy to reform those policies and practices through strategies that may include administrative advocacy, participation on task forces or working groups, and/or litigation.
• To ensure the Project’s systemic advocacy is guided by children and youths’ lived experiences, carry a small client caseload of children and youth of color who are being subjected to inequitable polices or practices in the juvenile justice and/or education systems.
Minimum Qualifications:
The Center is seeking an attorney who has a demonstrated commitment to racial justice, via systemic policy advocacy and/or traditional legal services. Applicants must be able to take initiative and work independently. A minimum of five years of related legal experience is required. Must be eligible to practice law in Connecticut, either as a member of the bar in good standing or with the ability to waive in and have access to transportation in order to travel to courts, clients, and other locations.
Application Process:
Email cover letter and detailed resume to [email protected].