The FIRST CLINIC: A Medical – Legal partnership supporting at risk pregnant persons.

Family Intervention Response to Stop Trauma (FIRST) Clinic – a medical-legal partnership providing legal representation to new & soon-to-be parents subject to CPS involvement. Preventing the filing of dependency and keeping families together is the primary goal of the FIRST Clinic. FIRST Clinic will share its successful prevention model. Discuss its exciting collaboration with Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families and how the work of the clinic has started to shift the culture in child welfare. This session will address: high quality legal representation, judicial and lawyer leadership, creating successful relationships and engaging parents with lived experience and reserving court proceedings for only the most challenging cases. How the FIRST Clinic has developed in WA State; initial evaluation data; practical tips for collaborating and creating partnerships with medical providers; tools and forms; cross-disciplinary training opportunities. Follow up with Q&A with the clinic .