MedicoLegal Partnership for Children

In keeping with its mission to create a world of hope for the most vulnerable and poorest of our children,Community for Children is undertaking a project to forge a partnershipbetween the Brownsville Community Health Center (BCHC) and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA).

Under the guidance of the national organization Medico-LegalPartnership for Children, BCHC and TRLA will work together in an effortto better meet the needs of the Lower Rio Grande Valley community andits children.

From the Medico-Legal Partnership for Children website:

The Medico-Legal Partnership for Children promotes collaboration between pediatricians and lawyers at sites around the country. The lawyers help to meet children’s basic needs, including food, housing, health care, education and safety. MLPC, by providing technical assistance and funding to active and nascent sites, seeks to transform the practice of pediatrics and the delivery of legal services by introducing preventative law to the clinical setting. By drawing on the strength of two powerful professions, community resources can be leveraged, and children and families can realize the promise of integrated, preventive services that promote health and well-being.

Participants in the elective will have the opportunity to help forgethis partnership from its infancy, working with both attorneys at TRLAand social workers, physicians and staff at BCHC.

Children in Immigration Detention: A Medical/Mental Health Perspective

In keeping with its support for the Universal Rights of a Child,Community for Children offers participants the opportunity to work withthe South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project ( ProBAR), anagency formed to provide high quality pro bono legal representation tothe thousands of immigrants detained in the Rio Grande Valley,primarily seeking protection in the form of political asylum. Over 400are unaccompanied children from Central America – children who havefled their home countries and journeyed to the United States withoutparents or guardians. These children are housed in federally runshelters and foster care homes while they are placed in deportationproceedings to be sent home. Many of them are escaping some form ofviolence, either physical or sexual abuse and many suffer the ongoingeffects of emotional, mental and physical trauma and illness. Theparticipants will have the opportunity to witness the conditions inwhich the children are living, hear first hand the experiences theyhave survived, and attend a court docket, while working with ProBar toestablish best practice guidelines for attorneys interviewing thesemost vulnerable of children, including identifying resources in thearea for children who have suffered trauma.