Social Worker/Youth Advocate, Youth Defense Practice (Queens)

The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. In 2024, CFR will expand our family defense practice to Richmond County. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Our goal is to defend and protect our clients’ rights, reduce the harm of family separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in the foster system.

CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense with a model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct personal experience of being investigated and prosecuted by ACS. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams and now has 7 parent advocates working in all three of our family defense locations. CFR’s Community Advocacy Project represents parents during a child protective investigation (to avoid court involvement where possible) and assists parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records.

As an agency committed to securing justice for families, we built the Youth Defense practice (YDP) to defend youth at risk of family separation through incarceration. YDP uses the same interdisciplinary model to represent youth being prosecuted in Queens and Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in Delinquency proceedings in Family Court. CFR’s Home for Good program provides legal and social work services to CFR clients in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters, to afford clients an efficient and well-coordinated one-stop solution to a range of issues that threaten family stability. 

Recognized as experts in our fields, we annually train over 500 practitioners in the city, state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and interdisciplinary representation, and we provide community based “Know Your Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that reduce the harm of family separation, and promote parent engagement and justice for youth and families.

CFR is seeking a Youth Defense Practice Social Worker/Youth Advocate for our Queens office who, under the supervision of a social work supervisor and YDP supervisory team will work exclusively on the youth defense team. The candidate will conduct assessments and write mitigation reports for their clients, and will also provide direct social work support and advocacy to CFR’s clients involved in the juvenile justice system. Social workers and Youth Advocates joining CFR can expect intensive, interdisciplinary training on CFR’s Cornerstone Advocacy model, client interviewing and other critical skills. CFR is dedicated to providing ongoing professional development in all these areas in a variety of training forums for all staff.  

Responsibilities for the Youth Defense Practice Social Worker/Advocate may include: 

• Providing direct social work support and advocacy to CFR’s clients involved in the juvenile justice system such as: 
• interviewing clients and their family/community members in various settings 
• conducting home, office and field visits (including detention facilities) conducting psychosocial assessments 
• referring clients to programs (educational support, mental health services, Alternative to Detention and Alternative to Placement programs, recreational or job programs) 
• providing oral and written advocacy in/for court, including testimony (fact and/or expert), especially at disposition in juvenile cases in family court 
• for YDP - develop dispositional plans and recommendations to prevent out-of-home placement 
• Preparing youth and their families for Probation adjustment conferences, I&R interviews, and MHS evaluations 
• Providing educational advocacy and resources for clients 
• Writing pre-sentencing and mitigation reports, including pre-pleading memoranda (PPMs)
• Obtaining, reviewing and analyzing all relevant case records (education records, service provider, arrest reports, petitions, court documents; mental health records) to gather information to include in PPMs and other advocacy letters; 
• Cultivating relationships with treatment providers such as Alternative to Incarceration programs and other services CFR’s clients will need to access; 
• Cultivating relationships with Probation and parole agencies and personnel 
• Educational advocacy, including attending IEP meetings and suspension hearings 
• Working alongside CFR’s YDP team to train new and current staff on best practices for working with clients involved in the justice system 
• Maintaining new and evolving YDP data in CMS and client legal notes 
• Keeping additional data related to deliverables for private funders supporting the youth defense practice and/or to meet with prospective and current funders 
• Helping to inform and grow CFR’s youth defense practice 
• Representing CFR in external policy efforts, including serving on committees, task forces, etc. 
• Working in a hybrid work model requiring in-person attendance for client work, community work, court and other related tasks, while also being productive and communicative while working remotely

Annualized Salary: 

$74,300 (L2) - $97,000 (L17) - Licensed Social Worker

$67,700 (L2) - $77,800 (L9) - Unlicensed Social Worker

$62,300 (L2) - $81,400 (L17) - Family Advocate

• Applicants must have a Bachelor’s degree, preferably with some prior experience with the NYC juvenile justice, criminal justice, family regulation, education, housing or public benefits’ systems or other social justice experience. Strong preference will be given to candidates with a Masters in Social Work.
• Candidates for the position should have at least two years of relevant experience.
• Applicants should be able to demonstrate a strong undergraduate academic record, strong interpersonal and communication skills, a commitment to supporting families, and a desire to share in both the exhilaration and challenges of a growing endeavor.
• Fluency in Spanish or other foreign language is highly desirable.