Organization Description
Dependency Advocacy Center (DAC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, provides interdisciplinary family defense legal services to indigent parents and children involved with Santa Clara County’s child welfare system and the juvenile dependency court. Our adult clients face the risk of permanent separation from their children due to allegations of abuse and neglect. Substance use disorder, intimate partner violence, and mental health concerns are commonly presenting issues, often rooted in the layered effects of poverty, marginalization, and intergenerational trauma. DAC was founded on the belief that traditional legal advocacy is insufficient to adequately represent our parent and youth clients. Our approach to holistic family defense utilizes an interdisciplinary team of attorneys, social workers, and mentor parents to create client-centered legal strategies designed to support the family’s long term success.
Mission Statement
Dependency Advocacy Center provides zealous legal representation to indigent clients in the juvenile dependency system to promote timely reunification and preservation of families in a safe, healthy environment. DAC believes that every parent and child entering the dependency system has a right to be treated with dignity, compassion and respect.
Job Description
This is a full-time/exempt, in-house social worker position working with a dynamic group of attorneys who represent parents and children involved in the child welfare system. As part of an interdisciplinary advocacy team, DAC social workers provide clinical expertise to support attorneys in presenting clients’ legal positions to the court. Roles and responsibilities include completing individualized needs assessments, providing referrals to resources in the community, ongoing case management, assistance in system navigation, interfacing with various service providers, providing clinical assessments, observing parent/child visitations, supporting clients at court hearings, providing expert testimony in litigation, writing reports to the court on the client’s behalf, and attending non-court based meetings, including CFT (Child Family Team) meetings.
Desired Qualifications
• Graduate degree, preferably a Masters in Social Work
• Demonstrated commitment to public interest issues
• Ability to flourish in a high-energy environment
• Ability to multi-task and be a productive team player
• Ability to work compassionately and respectfully with clients in crisis
• Excellent verbal, interpersonal, writing, interviewing, and organizational skills
• Bilingual skills, including fluency in Spanish, preferred
• Experience working with individuals from multi-ethnic communities
• Knowledge of community resources in Santa Clara County
• Experience in child welfare, risk assessment and safety planning strongly encouraged
Application Process
Please send cover letter and resume via email to [email protected]. Please send cover letter and resume via email. Cover letter to include answers to the following questions:
• Why are you interested in working as a family defense attorney and at DAC specifically?
• In order to best serve our clients and our community, DAC is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace in which differences are acknowledged and valued. How has your personal background or experiences, professional or otherwise, prepared you to contribute to social justice, race equity, and diversity among our staff?
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