Spring 2021 COVID Updates for Youth in Foster Care

Our clients face many barriers to housing and stability, and are most vulnerable to the impacts of the pandemic, unemployment and America’s reckoning with race. CLC is working closely with the courts to address the needs of our clients during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that services are not disrupted. 

18-21 Extended Foster Care Program Update: 

The U.S. Congress recently made adjustments to help foster youth in extended foster care during the pandemic. Specific changes include the following:

• During this pandemic, a state receiving federal funding for extended foster care programing may not terminate services to youth because of the youth’s age, lack of employment or failure to attend school from 4/1/20-9/30/21.
• States must allow youth to re-enter foster care if they aged out of foster care during the pandemic.

More information is found here. 

General Client Updates:

•  In recent conversations with new clients, many of them have said that they are excited to get to in person learning.   Some have already returned to school and others are returning soon. They say “online learning was fine but I missed being with my friends”.
• Although we are currently not doing in person client meetings, we have been able to resume getting client bags to our new clients. This provides a way for us to have some additional connection with our clients and with the pandemic having their own toiletries and other comfort items can be helpful.
• CLC is seeing cases reenter child protection now that schools are reopening.

Congratulations, Judy Nord! 2020 Rosalie E. Wahl Justice Awardee

Congratulations, Judy Nord! 2020 Rosalie E. Wahl Justice Awardee

Children’s Law Center’s Rosalie E. Wahl Justice for Children Award is presented annually to an individual who has dedicated his or her life to fighting for justice for at-risk or underprivileged children in our communities. The late Honorable Rosalie E. Wahl earned a reputation as a voice for those living on the edges of society—the poor, the accused, and the powerless.

CLC honors Judy Nord for her many years of dedicated work on behalf of Minnesota’s foster care children.

Judy has served as a Staff Attorney with the Minnesota State Court Administrator’s Office since 1995. Judy Nord has dedicated her 30-year career to increasing the safety and well-being of Minnesota’s at-risk and foster care youth in Minnesota. Judy is perhaps best known for her 25 years of service with Minnesota’s Judicial Branch Children’s Justice Initiative (CJI).

Under the leadership of Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz, Judy helped establish, and continues to serve as Staff Attorney for, the Children’s Justice Initiative (CJI).  The CJI began in 2000 and will celebrate its 20^th anniversary in December 2020.  The overall objective of the CJI is to timely find safe, stable, permanent homes for abused and neglected children, first through reunification with the child’s parents if that is safe or, if not, through another permanent placement option, and to improve child well-being.  When identifying and implementing improvements, the goal is for all stakeholders to operate “through the eyes of the child.”

Judy’s nomination letter noted “Judy is kind, funny and always willing to listen to questions or concerns regarding Minnesota’s foster care youth.  While Judy does not seek recognition for her commitment on behalf of Minnesota’s at-risk and foster care youth, it is time for her years of remarkable work for these children to be acknowledged.”

Congratulations, Judy!

Patty Wetterling Keynote Speaker

Children’s Law Center of Minnesota is thrilled to share that Patty Wetterling, national children’s safety advocate will be the keynote speaker for the October, 8, 2020, 7:00pm, Virtual Event, livestreamed at youtube.com/clcofmn. Patty Wetterling was recognized by CLC with the Rosalie E. Wahl Justice for Children Award in 2009, and is a longtime CLC supporter.

Patty Wetterling is a well known national advocate, visionary & educator on the issues and prevention of child abduction and exploitation.  In 1990, she co-founded the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center with her husband, Jerry, three months after their 11-year-old son, Jacob, was abducted by a masked gunman near their home in St. Joseph, Minnesota. In the decades since, Patty’s relentless search for her son has led her to become a visionary of hope, a catalyst for change, and an inspiration to parents everywhere.

On September 1, 2016, nearly twenty-seven years after her son’s kidnapping, answers finally came when a longtime suspect confessed to Jacob’s murder and led investigators to his remains. Throughout her emotional healing process, Patty has continued to fight for the world that Jacob knew and believed in – a world where children can grow up safe and follow their dreams.

Her keynote asks, “Are the Children Well? using a Masai tribe proverb to emphasize the importance of taking care of all children. Patty has been a life-long champion for children. Her vision is to build a world where children can grow up safe and follow their dreams.

CLC is honored to partner with Patty Wetterling to promote the wellbeing and legal rights for Minnesotan children. In genuine, Patty fashion, she shares her own experience with foster care in her own family, and the complexities of the legal system that she and her family faced after Jacob was found. Her message: Kids deserve to have a better world, and it is our responsibility to improve the lives of all children. CLC does that by giving abused and neglected youth a voice a chance at a positive future.

Use this link to register for the virtual event.

Questions: Please contact, CLC Development Director, Amanda Finman-Palmer at amandafp@clcmn.org or 612-760-9698.

Grant Announcement: The Otto Bremer Trust

The Otto Bremer Trust Awards $100,000 Grant to Children’s Law Center of Minnesota

Children’s Law Center of Minnesota serves Minnesota’s foster care youth through direct legal representation, systemic advocacy, education, and outreach efforts. CLC’s legal staff, working in tandem with our team of over 340 active volunteer attorneys, represent 900 youth in court.

The Otto Bremer Trust awarded CLC with a grant in the amount of $100,000 in early June. Foundation support has been essential to remaining stable during the global pandemic and the grief and trauma following the murder of George Floyd. OBT’s investment in CLC is transformative, and gives CLC the space to adapt and support our clients amidst the ever changing court processes and the increased needs of our youth. Thank you, Otto Bremer Trust for your philanthropy, leadership and investment in the lives and futures of Minnesotan youth.

About the Otto Bremer Trust
The Otto Bremer Trust is a bank holding company and a private charitable trust based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that works at the intersection of finance and philanthropy.
OBT is the 86 percent owner of Bremer Bank, a regional financial services company, and also manages a diversified investment portfolio. Since its founding, OBT has invested more than $700 million in people, places, and opportunities in the Upper Midwest. Visit ottobremer.org.

Preventing Homelessness for Foster Care Youth. Thank you, Pohlad!

Pohlad Family Foundation Homeless Prevention Program

This research and resource production was funded by the Pohlad Family Foundation Homeless Prevention Program. Our gratitude to the Pohlad Family Foundation for their generous funding, innovation and willingness to be the nexus of homeless prevention programming in Minnesota.

Preventing Homelessness for Foster Care Youth

Effective advocacy for a foster care youth may require attorneys to fulfill various roles for a child client. Youth in foster care often lack a consistent person in their life to help them stay on track as they transition to adulthood. While attorneys are not the youth’s foster parent, Guardian ad Litem or social worker, they are often the one consistent and trusted advisor in that child’s life.

To support this nuanced and important role volunteer attorneys provide in our clients lives, and the knowledge that 30% of youth in foster care end up homeless after they age out, CLC has created several resources for staff and volunteer attorneys, and community members who work with youth in foster care.

CLC Social Worker Angela Shepherd and Managing Attorney, Anne Gueinzius collaborated to write, edit and put together the following resources:

• Practice Point: Preventing Homelessness in Foster Care Youth,
•  Client Advocacy Homelessness Prevention Checklist that follows the guidelines for appropriate independent living skills and services to assist youth’s successful transition to adulthood. All volunteer attorneys receive this resource.
• Resources for Clients Guide: Some of these resources (housing/shelter) are for clients who are no longer in foster care and other resources may apply to youth in care.

Legal Advocacy for Youth During COVID-19

CLC’s focus is to continue our services while being safe regarding COVID-19. CLC legal team and volunteer attorneys continue to regularly connect with clients via facetime and phone calls, and submit motions as needed. We know that youth in foster care are very vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19. Clients are sharing that they are having a hard time staying home, unable to visit with siblings and family, and have limited or no access to mental health support.

Knowing all of this, Children’s Law Center of MN, along with other legal services in Minnesota, wrote to Governor Walz to ask that CLC (along with many other legal services organizations) be exempt from the “Stay at Home” executive order so we can continue to provide essential services to our clients. Shortly after Governor Walz’s announcement on Wednesday, we got word that child protection is included. 

Additionally, CLC partnered with a diverse coalition of organizations urging state and county officials to respond quickly to the threat that COVID-19 poses to youth involved in Minnesota’s juvenile justice system. COVID-19 and MN Juvenile Justice Letter 3.2020