Minnesota Communities Caring for Children, a group that focuses on preventing child abuse, has named Mitchell Hamline’s Joanna Woolman one of its 2016 Champions for Children.
Woolman is an associate professor and director of Mitchell Hamline’s Child Protection Clinic. The clinic itself was also named one of the 2016 Champions for Children. The awards will be presented at an MCCC event on April 9.
The Child Protection Clinic works with families in the state’s child protection system. It helps parents navigate the legal system, works to reunite families when it’s safe for children, and evaluates why families entered the system in the first place.
Mitchell Hamline students can get real-world legal experience working in the clinic as parent and child mentors.
The Child Protection Program is holding an all-day symposium on parent and child representation on Friday, Feb. 26.
Judges, attorneys, elected officials, and policy-makers will hear from local and national experts on how improvements to the parent and child representation system are linked to positive outcomes for children.