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Gov. Crist 2010 Budget Boosts Funding for Florida Children, Families, Foster Kids and Aged-Out Graduates

February 18th, 2010   No Comments   Foster Care, Funding

At a time when tough economics call for fiscal belt-tightening across the state, Gov. Charlie Crist this year has shown tremendous resolve and vision.

This year, the Governor has recommended $77.5 million to support a variety of Florida Department of Children and Families initiatives designed to protect current foster children and those graduating out of care.

Attorneys, guardians, advocates and others who provide legal representation for these citizens laud the governor for his recommendations.

According to a document from the DCF, the governor’s budget proposals are anticipated to protect critical services for vulnerable Floridians.

“We are grateful that Governor Charlie Crist places such a high priority on continuing DCF’s progress in increasing adoptions of children in foster care, keeping children and families together and safe from abuse, preventing domestic violence and homelessness, and providing treatment for mental illness and substance abuse,” noted DCF Secretary George H. Sheldon. (more…)

Florida’s Children First to Honor Attorney & Advocate Jesse H. Diner at Broward Reception Feb. 24 at Tower Club

February 9th, 2010   No Comments   Foster Care, Fundraising & Support

Florida Bar President Jesse H. Diner Instrumental in Seeking Legal Representation for Foster Children

Florida’s Children First (FCF), the statewide legal advocacy organization focused on protecting the legal rights of at-risk and foster care children, will honor at its upcoming Child Advocate Awards and Reception Mr. Jesse H. Diner, President of the Florida Bar, who has made advancing the rights of children a major emphasis in Florida.

jesse-dinerFCF’s annual Broward event will recognize Mr. Diner for his efforts supporting legislation designed to obtain counsel children in foster care and the dependency system, supporting the recommendations of the Florida Bar’s Legal Needs of Children Committee. He has championed the passage of legislation that would provide attorneys for foster children, ensuring foster children receive “the same zealous advocacy adult clients expect of their lawyers,” he has written.

He also has supported Florida Bar’s efforts in recruiting pro bono lawyers to represent these children. (more…)

80 Attend Legal Aid Service of Broward County and Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida ‘NEXT Event’

February 5th, 2010   No Comments   Fundraising & Support

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Legal Aid Service of Broward County and Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida’s newest organization – NEXT (Next EXecutive Team) – welcomed 80 guests including several members of the judiciary to a special Groundhog Day mixer at YOLO in downtown Fort Lauderdale on February 2, 2010.

The event was sponsored by the law firm of  Colodny Fass Talenfeld Karlinsky & Abate P.A. In addition to an exciting evening of new friends and networking, event attendees enjoyed learning more about NEXT – a joint project between the Legal Aid Service of Broward County and Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida.

“I’m glad to see lawyers and business people coming out so strongly to show support for Legal Aid and NEXT,” said Howard Talenfeld, Esq., an honorary guest and speaker, and a notable advocate for children and the elderly in South Florida.

“I think there are many of us in our community who really appreciate the important and much needed services Legal Aid provides.”

(more…)

Lawyers v. Guardians ad Litem: What is Best For a Foster Child in Florida Dependency Court?

January 30th, 2010   No Comments   Dependency, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

What is the difference — if any — when a guardian ad litem investigates and advocates for a child in Florida dependency court, and an attorney who does so?

The Florida Bar’s Legislation Committee last month explored this issue — and a recommended Bar legislative position from the Legal Needs of Children Committee that suggested state funding for lawyers to represent select children in dependency courts.

After testimony from some involved, including judges and a former foster child, the committee recommended the proposal on a 5-1 vote.

It’s an important issue, said supporter Howard Talenfeld, chair of the Legal Needs of Children Committee. If the Legislature approves the measure, time spent by children in foster care could be reduced.

“Foster care is like being in the ocean,” Talenfeld was quoted in the Florida Bar News. “The longer children are there, the better the chance they’ll drown.” Read the Florida Bar News article here…

Child Advocate: Florida Adoption of Haiti Orphans May Be a Long Process

January 24th, 2010   No Comments   Adoption

Legal declarations and parental rights are part of a long wait for those seeking to adopt children — including orphans arriving from the Haiti earthquake, Florida child advocate attorney Brian J. Cabrey, Esq., tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The touching images of Haitian children arriving on U.S. soil pulls at the heartstrings of many Americans, especially those who want to adopt children. But adoption experts say that compassion for the displaced children and the reality of child adoption – both in and outside of the United States – are two different things.

Even under usual circumstances there are enormous misconceptions about the intricacies of child adoption, experts say. And those misconceptions could explain the flood of offers to adopt children who have suffered immeasurable loss.

“People have to realize that there is often nothing fast-moving about the process of adoption, much less adoption of the children coming out of Haiti right now,” says Cabrey, a former senior attorney with the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) and board member of Florida’s Children First, a statewide child advocacy organization that seeks to serve foster, abused and neglected children. Read the entire article here…

Florida, Attorneys Provide Help to Haiti Earthquake Victims, Orphans

January 22nd, 2010   No Comments   Fundraising & Support, News & Events

Child care advocates, attorneys and agencies across Florida are stepping up to provide assistance and guidance to victims and orphans from the Haiti earthquake — and those who want to help.

The state of Florida Department of Children and Families has posted a variety of resources on its Website. Visit DCF Haiti Earthquake Relief (https://www.dcf.state.fl.us/haitiInfo.shtml) to learn more.

The U.S. Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services hosted a recent workshop for those Haitians interested in gaining Temporary Protected Status, with members of the Miami-based Haitian Lawyers Association in attendance. Learn more by visiting their site at https://www.hlaonline.org/.

University of Miami Law School lawyers and students helped those seeking TPS fill out forms. Read here to find out what’s needed to properly fill out the documentation.

Listen to this WLRN-FM radio story on the process of applying for TPS status. Applicants have six months to apply for TPS status, beginning on January 21, 2010. Officials expect more than 200,000 applications.

Attorneys and advocates can visit the Florida Bar Association Website to find out how they can help. Others can visit the Miami Herald’s database of charities.

Most Effective Lawyers: Four Years of Work Led to Settlement in DCF Case

December 15th, 2009   No Comments   News & Events, Rights of Foster Children

The Daily Business Review, a leading legal and professional publication in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and South Florida’s tri-county community, recently named law firm partners Howard Talenfeld and Tracey McPharlin among its Most Effective Lawyers.

To the two foster care and child advocacy attorneys, partners with Colodny Fass Talenfeld Karlinsky & Abate P.A., the proposition seemed simple: placing children who are known sexual offenders into a foster home where other foster children reside is a dangerous practice.

But it took nearly four years to persuade a court to recognize that the Department of Children and Families workers who placed two teenage boys with a known history of sexual predation into a home with three younger children acted with deliberate indifference. The workers were not, the lawyers argued, entitled to qualified immunity. Read the original article here…

(more…)

Child Advocacy, Foster Care Attorneys Lauded for “Tenacity” in Case & $2.9 Million Settlement Against Florida DCF

December 9th, 2009   No Comments   Abuse, Foster Care, News & Events

Child advocacy and foster care attorneys Howard Talenfeld and Tracey K. McPharlin of Colodny Fass Talenfeld Karlinsky & Abate P.A., have been recognized as Finalists in The Daily Business Review’s fifth annual Most Effective Lawyers awards competition.

Every year, in what has become one of the most closely watched attorney recognition programs in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, the Daily Business Review highlights the work of private and public sector lawyers through the Most Effective Lawyers in South Florida.

The program recognizes more than 80 attorneys in 16 categories: real estate, pro bono, complex / business litigation, international, appellate law, public interest, class actions, criminal justice, personal injury, product liability, regulatory, medical malpractice, labor & employment, securities, bankruptcy / receivership, environmental law.

Talenfeld and McPharlin were recognized for having secured significant victories for their clients. Specifically, they were noted for the four years they invested in a case that led to a settlement with the Florida Department of Children and Families. The two attorneys represented the biological parents of three young children who were preschool-aged at the time of late-1990s sexual assaults by two teenage boys with a known history of sexual predation.

The DBR story recognizing Talenfeld and McPharlin begins below… (more…)

When a Florida Foster Child Makes a Call for Help Does Anyone Listen?

December 1st, 2009   No Comments   Abuse, News & Events

If a Florida foster child, vulnerable person or concerned citizen makes a call to a state-sponsored abuse hotline, can he or she be assured help will come?

That’s the question citizens, child advocate attorneys and others are asking as revelations of the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) Abuse Report Hotline are going public.

At issue: The state’s admitted “screening” process that takes some calls seriously, while ignoring others.

“Hot-line calls are cries for help on behalf of a child,” said Howard Talenfeld, the Fort Lauderdale-based chairman of Florida’s Children First, an advocacy group. “Any call that is screened out is a cry that falls on deaf ears.”

Click here to read the Miami Herald article.

National Adoption Month Highlights Need to Find Florida Foster Kids Permanent Homes

November 27th, 2009   No Comments   Adoption, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

I recently met with a young lady, R.J., who came into the Florida child welfare system in Miami at the age of 3 as a healthy child. R.J. exited the system at the age of 18 with very serious mental illnesses.

Even more appalling is that R.J. has eight brothers and sisters who each came into the system at roughly the same ages. Each spent roughly the same amount of time in the system. None were ever adopted. Despite having juvenile court judges, a guardian ad litem and many caseworkers, these nine children have endured this horrific and unacceptable result.

They are not alone.

Almost half of Florida’s foster children, or 9,321, have been in out-of-home care more than a year, despite state or federal requirements for permanency in less than one year. A quarter (more than 5,000) have been in out-of-home care more than two years. More than 2,500 children have been without a family for longer than three years. Read this Florida Bar News story on The Legal Needs of Children panel’s report. (more…)

Florida Trend Story Highlights Foster Kids’ Need for Attorneys

November 25th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

ht-florida-trendIn a report issued this fall by the Children’s Advocacy Institute and First Star, Florida and six other states got an “F” for the legal representation and attorney services it provides to abused, neglected and foster children, notes a story in the December issue of Florida Trend.

“Very few of these children have lawyers, and yet their entire life is on the line,” says Howard Talenfeld, Chairman of the Florida Bar’s Legal Needs of Children Committee. Talenfeld is pushing for legislation to require that children in the state’s welfare system have an attorney. Read the Florida Child Advocate blog on Florida’s Failing Grade here.

The Florida Trend story helps highlight the plight of these children — and the Committee’s work on their behalf.

Florida’s Children First Honors Foster Care Advocates & Graduate

November 19th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Fundraising & Support

More than 100 child advocates, lawyers, judges and politicians gathered at the Gunster Yoakley law firm offices in West Palm Beach recently to honor those in Palm Beach County who are making a difference in the lives of foster children.

“These individuals have proven that you can help change outcomes for foster children by simply getting involved in a foster child’s life,” said Howard Talenfeld, President of Florida’s Children First, and a partner with Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate PA.

The event raised more than $20,000 and honored local foster care advocates and Obadiah Payton, a  young adult who successfully made it through the system. Read the Sun-Sentinel On The Scene coverage here…

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