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Question:
What do I need to do to become an advocate to help mothers who have lost their children to the DSS or other government agency?
Answer:

Hi Crystal,
 
Thank you for visiting the Community Tool Box (CTB) and Ask an Advisor, hopefully we can provide you with useful, timely, and directly applicable information to help you help those who can't necessarily help themselves. Well, the first thing I would like you to do is to learn more about advocacy before you attempt to become an advocate by following this path to some great resources we have here in the CTB: go to our home page, click on "Learn A Skill," click on "Table of Contents" and scroll down to the section entitled: "Organizing for Effective Advocacy." Click on Chapter 30 - Principles of Advocacy and look specifically at sections 2, 3, and 4. Okay, so far, so good.
 
Now that you know all about advocacy your question is about how to become one for mothers who have had their children removed by DSS or other agencies (CPS), correct? Let me say first that in these types of situations it's typically a family lawyer who advocates on behalf of the mother (or father as the case may be) so I'm not sure what your role would be or where you might fit into the dynamic between DSS, the legal system, and the mother if the removal is unjustified, which in some cases it is. Having served as a Guardian ad Litem in South Carolina representing children in family court who were removed from their homes by DSS I will tell you that in many cases removal is justified, but I appreciate that you want to help mothers in those cases when it is not; sometimes the system gets it wrong and that's why we need people like you. Because I could not find anything in the CTB about this particular type of advocacy work and specific steps you would take I did a Google search and came up with the following links that might be illustrative and informative:
 
 http://childrensvillage.org/nyc-based-programs/impact/http://www.fsmv.org/CASA/documents/YouarenotAlone-AGuideforParentswithCh....
http://www.upstatefamilylawblog.com/what-happens-if-dss-takes-your-child...
http://fightcps.com/2015/06/29/why-cps-caseworker-is-not-helping-you/
https://www.abetterwayinc.net/parent
http://www.fpafoundation.org/
 
Okay Crystal, that's about as much information as I'm able to provide at this time, which I feel isn't exactly what you're looking for, but it might prove useful in some way (I hope). With that, thank you for your question and for wanting to take action on behalf of others in your community. Be well, take care, do good work.
 
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Question Date: جمعة, 05/13/2016