Social Work at LSNYC
Legal Services NYC (LSNYC) prides itself on using an interdisciplinary framework that employs a holistic, trauma-informed, collaborative advocacy model. For over 25 years, our social workers have innovated the way we provide comprehensive legal services to our clients.
Our Licensed Master Social Workers (LMSW) and Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW) are at the forefront of forensic social work in New York.
We collaborate with our clients’ legal teams to develop the best legal strategy; advocate and accompany clients to court and offsite locations; provide emotional support and counseling; testify in court and hearings; provide crisis support and safety planning; engage in home visits; write psychosocial evaluations, affidavits and letters of support; and provide client-centered assessments, resources, and referrals all through a trauma focused and culturally responsive lens. We believe that by addressing our clients’ non-legal needs, we are able to achieve better legal outcomes for our clients.
Recent Work
In addition to direct client work and legal collaboration, our social workers routinely spearhead projects that enhance and uplift clients’ lives, including:
- Running various support groups for clients, often in collaboration with some of our partner organizations, to help clients better understand the legal system and create peer-to-peer support;
- Developing, fundraising for, and administering ad hoc emergency funds for clients, including the LSNYC Covid-19 Emergency Client Fund, which distributed over $190,000 in emergency cash grants to 287 immigrant families over six months.
- Participating and contributing to various impact litigation suits, including lawsuits brought against NYC Language Access, NYPD, NYCHA, and DOE that have helped create macro-level policies and reform throughout the City;
- Testifying at City Council hearings and lobby days in Albany, coordinate the NYC Taskforce of Social Workers, and sit on the Steering Committee of various coalitions and task forces;
- Regularly speaking on panels and present at local and national conferences surrounding forensic social work and legal-social work collaboration; and
- Hosting interns and fellows from social work programs across the city and country including Columbia University, Lehman College, Hunter College, Fordham University, New York University, The College of Staten Island and the University of Chicago;
- Providing trainings for LSNYC staff, other legal services organizations, and law schools on important topics such as vicarious trauma, attorney-social work collaboration, domestic violence, suicidality, trauma-informed interviewing, de-escalation, and Know-Your-Rights workshops;
- LSNYC continues to explore ways to expand its social work staff within and across legal practices and fortify the work and outcomes that benefit from this collaboration.
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