WNYC’s Ailsa Chang Profiles LSNYC’s Brooklyn Family Defense Project

Above: BFDP Director Lauren Shapiro (WNYC Photo by Stephen Nessen)

On December 22, 2009, WNYC (93.9fm) aired a compelling piece profiling our Brooklyn Family Defense Project and its Director, Lauren Shapiro. The profile by reporter Ailsa Chang was also a sensitive portrayal of the lives and struggles of our clients. 

Listen to the piece at WNYC.org. More information along with a photo slideshow can be found on the WNYC.org blog.

From the story:

Lauren Shapiro has defended former prostitutes, drug addicts, schizophrenics, and parents living with their kids in cars. Some of the stories are disturbing. One mother choked her son and beat him unconscious with a broom. One father smashed a vase into his daughter’s head. Shapiro runs Brooklyn Family Defense Project. It’s a group of lawyers and social workers who fight for the rights of these parents to get their kids back. She remembers when she first told people she was starting an office to represent parents accused of abuse and neglect. “Some people said, ‘Why would you do that?’ And it’s hard to convey,” Shapiro says.

She says she wanted to help the neediest people in the city. And to understand what moves her so much about those clients, she says you need to hear their stories.

When you walk into Family Court in Brooklyn, what you first see are parents who don’t trust the system to treat them fairly.

“That’s not fair. They’re not giving me a chance right here, right now. Know what I mean? I’ll take the baby so she can see her little sister. They not giving me a chance,” one mother says.

“Nobody’s not trying to work with me, and I’m trying my hardest to get my child back and my life and it seems like everybody’s, like, closing the doors on me,” another mother says.

[…]

Studies show children in foster care are more likely to commit crimes, develop mental health issues, and have problems in school. Shapiro’s office takes that research seriously. A parent who’s about to lose a child to foster care has the right to an emergency hearing within three days. Shapiro makes those hearings a top priority, even if it means covering for colleagues at the last minute so they can show up at those hearings. “I have this case at 11:30 that I know absolutely nothing about that I have to somehow between now and 11:30 figure out. Luckily for me, I’ve been doing this a long time so it’s easy to get up to speed,” Shapiro says.

Shapiro has spent almost her entire legal career defending parents. Her days start at 4:30 a.m. so she can get in a few hours of work before dropping her own kids off at school. The schedule is grueling, but she says her clients never burn her out. “There’s so much stacked against them. They come into court with a petition filed against them, alleging that they’re neglectful parents, but when you speak to them you get a completely different picture, and when you see them with their children, you get a completely different picture,” she says.

The Brooklyn Family Defense Project (“BFDP,” A program of Legal Services NYC) was one of three providers selected by the City of New York to establish a new office to represent parents in child welfare cases filed by the Administration for Children’s Services. The City’s contract requires BFDP to represent 800 low income families in Brooklyn Family Court each year. Our clients face numerous challenges to maintaining their families, including homelessness, mental illness of the parents and/or the children, physical disabilities, addiction, and domestic violence, all of which are exacerbated by our clients’ poverty. BFDP’s mission is to provide high quality legal representation to protect parents’ due process rights while promoting access to the services necessary to build safe and stable families. Each case is uniquely different and raises complex issues of law and fact. Because we represent so many of the families affected by the family court and child welfare systems, BFDP is also uniquely situated to advocate for systemic change. 

BFDP’s diverse and talented staff works collaboratively in teams of attorneys, social workers and paralegal/parent advocates to advocate strongly on behalf of individual parents who risk the loss of their children. To ensure that our clients receive comprehensive services we have developed collaborations with the NYU School of Law’s Family Defense Clinic, the Hunter School of Social Work, and other local schools. Through these partnerships, we receive added support in our individual cases while helping to train new generations of family defense professionals.