The Support Center for Child Advocates Challenge

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The Challenge

At the Support Center for Child Advocates, we have created a model of service that allows us to most effectively meet the needs of abused and neglected children. We team together a lead Volunteer Attorney with a staff Social Worker and a consulting Staff Attorney. This model ensures that our children are getting their legal and social service needs met. 

It is the mission of Child Advocates to advocate for abused and neglected children in Philadelphia with the goal of securing a permanent, nurturing environment for every child.            HELP NOW!

We take a holistic approach to serving our children in need. We treat the whole child by attending to all legal and social service needs. Our Volunteer Attorneys stand with the child in court, giving them a voice when they need it most, making sure the courts consider the child’s best interest when making tough decisions.

Our Masters-level Social Workers are deeply involved with each child, making sure they receive all available and necessary social services. Whether it’s medical attention, educational support, therapy or behavioral health services, we get each child the resources they need to recover from the trauma they have suffered. We served a record-number of children last year – 846! Can we help 1000 children in 2011?

Last year, 334 Volunteer Attorneys gave their time to represent these children in legal proceedings, donating their time worth an estimated $4.8 million in legal fees.

In Dependency Court, they attended hearings to determine a child’s placement in foster care, prepared a child for reunification with a parent, or fought for the termination of parental rights to make the way for adoption. In Criminal Court, they helped prepare the child to testify against their abuser, explained the complex criminal court system, and stood by them for the verdict – good or bad.

At the Support Center for Child Advocates, we have only 9 Social Workers on staff! Each of them carries an average caseload of 65 kids. Social Workers team with the Volunteer Attorneys to make home visits to see how the child is doing at home or in foster care, arrange for any necessary medical and dental treatment, work with the schools to make sure they are getting a proper education, and ensure the kids are getting appropriate therapy and other services to help reduce the trauma suffered through abuse and neglect.

Our children deserve the best attention we can give them. To improve the direct services and allow us to serve from children, it is our goal to increase our Social Worker staff by two this year. The additional staff would allow us to reduce the caseload for each Social Worker, and let them spend more time and attention on each child.

Our current needs are for a Spanish-speaking Social Worker, and a Social Worker to focus on the particular needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning (LGBTQ) youth.

GROWTH COSTS -- FY 2011-2014

  FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013FY 2014
Salary -- new costs 
Spanish-speaking Social Worker $45,000 $46,350 $47,741 $49,173
LGBTQ Social Worker $45,000 $46,350 $47,741 $49,173
Cost $90,000 $92,700 $95,481 $98,345
Benefits -- new costs       
Health insurance/disab/401K = 23% allocation $20,700 $21,321 $21,961 $22,619
FICA = 7.65% allocation $6,885 $7,092 $7,304 $7,523
UC/WC = 1% allocation $900 $927 $955 $983
TOTAL GROWTH COSTS BY YEAR $118,485 $122,040 $125,701 $129,472

Please help us bring healing into these children’s lives. Help us increase our staff and decrease the amount of cases for each Social Worker. Help us change the story for abused and neglected children!

 

For even more information on how you can help, please contact:
Moira Mulroney, Esq.
Director of Development & Communications
Support Center for Child Advocates
1900 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
mmulroney@advokid.org
(267) 546-9208