Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Spring 2014, Vol. 40, No. 1 | Page 44

The Children’s Corner came a top student. These are difficult cases where clients have multiple needs, most of which are interwoven with poverty. At a time when affordable housing is scarce or non-existent and there are huge waiting lists for treatment services, family support workers have been remarkably successful in helping. In fiscal year 2012-2013, the Project supported seventy-seven families involving over 120 children. Here are some of the recent successes: • Sixty-two clients (80%) obtained substance abuse and/or mental health treatment • Thirty-five clients (45%) obtained safe and stable housing • Clients and their children in at least seventy-three instances accessed essential services such as food, transportation, benefits, medical care, daycare, and community support • Sixteen clients (21%) obtained and maintain jobs Family support workers have improved case outcomes! 74% of the families in these cases have been reunited or are on track for reunification. • Eighteen families have been reunited • Thirty-four families are on track for reunification and are actively receiving support • Five truancy cases have been successfully closed, and the children are back in school • Six parents were supported in voluntarily relinquishing their parental rights—at least two of them so that family members could adopt their children • Fourteen parents had their parental rights terminated 44 The project needs to grow so that we have dedicated family support workers in every county to provide assistance to these families at the earliest possible time. We and the other programs around the country have demonstrated that the improved outcomes for families and the ultimate savings in costs: “Results from regional evaluations of parent representation programs indicate that providing parents with highquality representation helps achieve the dual mandates of federal child welfare policy—keeping children safely at home when possible and helping children exit foster care to permanency as quickly and safely as possible.”4 Currently, we have kept our costs very low, spending $68,238 in hours billed by the family support workers in 2012-2013, which breaks down to a cost of $886 per case; but we need to add more workers who can get involved in these cases in the very early stages. With the rise of drug addiction in Vermont, getting parents the necessary substance abuse treatment will be a priority. ____________________ Anna Saxman, Esq., is the Deputy Defender General for the State of Vermont. She is also an adjunct professor at Vermont Law School where she teaches Criminal Practice and Procedure and is one of the professors teaching in the Criminal Law Clinic. ____________________ AFCARS data submitted by the states for 2009, available at http://cwoutcomes.acf.hhs. gov/data. 2 E.Thornton & B. Gwin, High Quality Legal Representation for Parents in Child Welfare Cases Results in Improved Outcomes for Families and Potential Cost Savings, 46 Fam. L.Q. 139 (2012). 3 Id. at 147. 4 Id. at 154. 1 THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • SPRING 2014 IN MEMORIAM Judith Goldstein Joseph Born in Philadelphia, August 16, 1943, Judith Goldstein Joseph, 70, of North Hero, died February 21, 2014. She graduated from the College of the University of Pennsylvania (B.A.) and received a graduate degree from Drexel University before earning her J.D. at the Rutgers School of Law. She worked as a librarian at the Library of Congress and LaSalle University and worked as an attorney in private practice with her husband in Philadelphia. She helped to found Women Aga [