Alice Rosenthal

Center for Children’s Advocacy is the largest children’s legal rights organization in New England. The Center for Children’s Advocacy (CCA) was founded in 1997 by long-time civil rights attorney Martha Stone. Attorney Stone wanted to create a nonprofit law firm that specialized in children’s legal issues, and envisioned an organization that would bring legal resources from the law office to community sites easily accessible by children and youth; be a one-stop shop providing holistic legal services to meet all of a child’s legal needs, including education, abuse and neglect, and access to health care; depend on very little state money, enabling zealous legal advocacy for child clients even in cases involving the state; have an interdisciplinary focus, partnering with medical and education professionals to bring expertise from those fields to children’s cases. CCA combines three advocacy strategies – individual legal representation; legal rights training for youth, parents and professionals; and advocacy for system reforms. Training and systemic advocacy maximize the reach of CCA’s staff. Trainings increase and improve legal advocacy for children, and systemic reforms benefit thousands of children beyond individual legal representation.