Youth Law Center

Carole Shauffer. Carole Shauffer became Executive Director in 1994, after having been a Staff Attorney with the Youth Law Center since 1981. Carole has extensive experience in the rights and needs of children in out of home care, and of the legal responsibilities of child welfare and juvenile justice systems that care for them. Initially her work at the Youth Law Center… See full bio.

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Story: The Youth Law Center is a public interest law firm that works to protect children in the nation’s foster care and juvenile justice systems from abuse and neglect, and to ensure that they receive the necessary support and services to become healthy and productive adults. Since 1978 our lawyers have worked across the United States to reduce the use of out-of-home care and incarceration, to strengthen families, and to improve access to quality education, health and mental health care, and other supportive services. Because of our work hundreds of thousands of children have enjoyed better treatment and improved living conditions and services that have helped them to grow into healthy productive adults.

Evidence of Impact Summary:

According to experts, the Youth Law Center has been instumental in addressing the policies and laws that undermine students in the juvenile justice and foster care system.
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Organization Strengths Summary:

Youth Law Center is known for its very talented staff. Youth Law Center attracts and continues to attract lawyers and law students committed to addressing these critical needs. With an active veteran staff, YLC's leadership is reliable and steady.
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Areas for Improvement Summary:

Youth Law Center would benefit from more staffing to cover more subjects and support more litigation than at present.
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Carole Shauffer became Executive Director in 1994, after having been a Staff Attorney with the Youth Law Center since 1981. Carole has extensive experience in the rights and needs of children in out of home care, and of the legal responsibilities of child welfare and juvenile justice systems that care for them. Initially her work at the Youth Law Center focused upon correcting abuses of children in juvenile justice system. During the past two decades, Carole has directed her attention on the problems and needs of children in foster care systems nationwide and has gained a national reputation as a leader and innovator in child welfare reform. Carole’s work in child welfare reform has focused on increasing permanency outcomes for children in foster care by addressing barriers to adoption, working with faith communities to provide support and services for at-risk youth, and reducing the use of shelter care for foster youth, particularly for infants and toddlers. She has worked with child welfare officials in numerous jurisdictions to incorporate research on infancy and early childhood development into child welfare practice and to reduce the use of shelter care. Carole is leading the Quality Parenting Initiative in Florida and California, a project to improve the recruitment and retention of quality foster parents. With a researcher from Georgetown University, Carole started a video-based teen parenting project in California for incarcerated youth which will soon expand to other states. From 2003 to 2005, Carole was a Zero to Three Harris Mid-Career Fellow. She received her B.A. from Smith College in 1971, her M.Ed. from Northeastern University in 1974, and her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 1978. Before joining the Youth Law Center, Carole worked at the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana.

The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at feedback@myphilanthropedia.org with your request.