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Legal Volunteers Provide Services to Help Meet Health Needs of Poor Children in New York City
Providing free legal services to improve the health outcomes of poor children in New York City
Legal intervention to protect the rights of children — for example, addressing benefit eligibility, housing problems, immigration status and family law questions — can be a necessary step in meeting their health needs.
In 2001, Volunteers of Legal Service launched its Children's Project, which provides free legal services to low-income children in New York City hospitals.
Key Results
- Volunteers provided legal assistance to 41 children and their families. Examples include:
- Assisting the father of a three-year-old HIV-positive child to establish paternity in Family Court.
- Representing a chronically-ill six-year-old, her two-year-old sister and their mother before the city's Emergency Assistance Unit.
- Obtaining a visa to allow the mother of a teenage boy who required a kidney transplant to come to New York from Colombia.
Funding
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported the project with a grant of $35,000 from November 2001 to October 2002.