SAN DIEGO COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION CHILDREN AT RISK COMMITTEE

by Donna L. Mallen, Esq., and Enrique A. Monteagudo, J.D.

    The San Diego Family Law Council for Children is dedicated to easing the impact of divorce and other family-splitting events on the lives of children.  Often, family break-ups and emotional risk for the children go hand-in-hand.  When the family is de-stabilized, the child is often left floundering and troubled, coping with the overwhelming events at home by acting out angrily in school or seeking companionship with other troubled children. 

    Looking at the flow of criminal and juvenile offenders and brings many an attorney  or judge to ask what makes the difference in one child’s life, causing him or her to grow up to be a part of that flowing stream, instead of becoming a more productive member of society.  What can be done to change the course of that stream?  How can I make a difference?

    Asking themselves these questions, and then taking action to help channel that flow into a positive direction, a very active and dedicated group of attorneys, judges and law students have become involved in the San Diego County Bar Association’s Children at Risk Committee, co-chaired this year by attorneys Elizabeth Balfour and Dawn Davies.    This committee has come up with some exemplary solutions that really do make a difference.

    In addition to supporting the like-minded activities of other community organizations such as the Credit Abuse Resistance Education Program (CARE) project of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California, the San Diego Teen Court, the San Diego Paralegals Association, and the San Diego Family Law Council for Children, this action-oriented committee focuses on interactive projects with the students whose schools they have adopted.

    Through their Literacy Program, members go the school to read with the children, not only helping them with their reading abilities, but demonstrating as adult role models that reading is an important and valued skill.  The Literacy Program is augmented by the Committee’s annual Children’s Book Drive.

    The same interactive role-modeling takes place in their Conflict Resolution Skills Training, consisting of Peer Mediators Training (teaching students to become peer counselors who will mediate disputes between other students) and  Conflict Resolution Skills  Training (introducing basic conflict resolution skills to the whole classroom).  A lead trainer from the Children at Risk Committee teaches core concepts to the students and leads class discussion, and  attorney volunteers teach the skills directly to small groups of students.

    Like adults in mediation or in a parenting class, through the Conflict Resolution Skills training and the Mock Video project, the children come to understand how to listen to both parties’ positions and participate in working toward a solution that will consider both parties’ interests. 

    The Committee’s Mock Trial Video is designed to give fourth and fifth graders an experience of being on a jury.  The trial involves two students who are accused of selling drugs at school.  All roles are acted out by children.  After an introduction by Judge Leo Papas, the video proceeds with certain structured pauses, at which time the presenting attorney or judge can stop the tape to raise discussion and respond to questions.

    Like adults in mediation or in a parenting class, through the Conflict Resolution Skills training and the Mock Video project, the children come to understand how to listen to both parties’ positions and participate in working toward a solution that will consider both parties’ interests. 

    For High School students, the Committee has adopted a local school, where the members participate in programs such as the Legal Eagle Program (attorneys mentoring students), the  Job Shadow Program (students “shadow” an attorney at work),  Senior Exhibition (attorneys evaluate the Seniors’ presentations related to their career interests),  Career Day  (a group of representatives of the legal profession field questions from the high school students), and Law Academy Scholarship Contest (an essay contest  related to interest in a career in law, with a $500 scholarship award).

    The guidance and attention given to these children by the members of the Children at Risk Committee through their face-to-face volunteer work undoubtedly give them a head start on channeling their own lives in a positive direction.  They have answered the question, “How can we make a difference?”