For many families, contact with the legal system comes after years of struggling to meet basic needs. When we invest in solutions that respond to those needs both inside and outside of the courts, we pave the way for safer, stronger communities.
Family relationships play a central role across all aspects of our lives. As children, stability, safety, and strong relationships at home support our physical, emotional, and cognitive development. Our earliest relationships can serve as blueprints for how we perceive the world around us, and how we relate to ourselves and others well into adulthood. And our own sense of self as individuals is deeply intertwined with the well-being of those we’re most connected to.
At the Center, we know that healthy communities start with strong, thriving families. Yet far too often, systems meant to serve families can fall short, risking under- or over-involvement in their lives. Legacies of inequality and disinvestment have left many families with little support for crucial needs, while punitive policies can catch families in cycles of harm and system involvement that make it even harder for them to thrive.
In family court, it’s not just the incident that brings families to court that’s on trial—it’s really the whole family.
Both the criminal and civil legal systems have a profound and often damaging impact on families, especially families of color. Half of all people held in prison across the United States have a child under the age of 18. As rates of incarcerated women have gone up in recent years, so have the number of mothers in prison—many of whom serve as the primary caregiver for their children. At any given time, nearly 3 million children across the country have a parent who is incarcerated.
But the legal system’s impact also extends to family courts, which hear cases involving custody, child protection, juvenile offenses, and more. The decisions made in these courts have life-changing consequences for families, including whether children might be separated from their caregivers, siblings, and potentially their communities. And much like the criminal justice system, Black families have long been swept into family courts and the child welfare system at disproportionate rates.
“In family court, it’s not just the incident that brings families to court that’s on trial—it’s really the whole family,” says Kiran Malpe, Director of Clinical Supervision and Practice. “The family is really under the microscope.”
Many families become entangled in these systems after years of struggling to meet basic needs. Families involved in family court are often facing housing insecurity, poverty, mental health needs, and histories of trauma. Yet the traditional court process isn’t often equipped to address these issues, compounding the hardships that families carry with them into court.
What would happen if all of our policies and practices paid closer attention to what parents and children really need, opening doors to vital resources and helping them live lives of joy and fulfillment? That question guides all of our work at the Center, whether we’re supporting stable, affordable housing or making sure courts leave families better off than when they came in.
We see that in programs like our Strong Starts Court Initiative, which brings everyone involved in the family court process together to focus on the unique developmental needs of infants and toddlers—especially in their relationships with caregivers—and break cycles of trauma.
After assessing families’ needs, clinicians from our Strong Starts team connect parents to high-quality services, support judges in making informed decisions about infant mental health, and introduce early childhood services into the court. They also link families to something called “dyadic” therapy, focusing on the relationship between parent and child instead of addressing them in isolation.
…it sets the precedent that there’s no hierarchy, that we’re all in this together.
The Strong Starts Court Initiative inspired the creation of the Parent Hub, which gives our staff from across the Center resources to better understand and meet the needs of parents and young children in their own work. The Parent Hub draws on our expertise in other Family Court programs like the Parent Support Program, where we partner with NYC’s Office of Child Support Services to help noncustodial parents meet their child support requirements and build economic stability.
Alongside New York’s court system, we’re using what we’ve learned from these programs to help transform how families navigate family court across the state. The Family Justice Initiative brings together judges, attorneys, service providers, and people with lived experience to craft community-centered solutions that reduce and prevent system involvement. The goal is to enhance family courts’ capacity to respond to families in trauma-informed ways and break intergenerational cycles of harm.
Outside of the legal system, initiatives like our Queens Community Justice Center’s Functional Family Therapy program have therapists meet parents and children in their own homes to help them work through conflicts and strengthen their relationships with each other. Recognizing the stigma surrounding traditional therapy for many families, our team meets people where they’re at to make it easier for them to get help.
“When people can see therapists in their home, it sets the precedent that there’s no hierarchy, that we’re all in this together,” says Dominique McNally, Clinical Supervisor at the Queens Community Justice Center. “And having them come from some of the same communities builds an added layer of trust and vulnerability.”
Families also need communal spaces where they can lean on each other and know they’re not alone in the challenges they’re facing. Our Staten Island Justice Center’s Family Enrichment Center not only provides tangible resources like hygiene supplies and clothing for families in need, but also serves as a hub for community and mutual support.
For millions of families, the legal system is one of many institutions that falls short of providing the support they need. With collaboration and care, we can transform that system in ways that are responsive to the unique needs of each family. And we can invest in new approaches that address those concerns before parents and their children come into the system in the first place.