Advocating for the Most Vulnerable Children To Be Seen and Heard

“We would love it if kids didn’t need to go through a legal process that removed them from their family’s home at all,” says Kristin Mateer, the executive director of East Bay Children’s Law Offices (EBCLO). If families could be supported within their community, the 1,700 Alameda County kids EBCLO serves each year would not need representation in juvenile dependency court at all.  

Until then, EBCLO fills an essential and ever-vigilant role. From Oakland, EBCLO operates in a complex child welfare system where legal advocacy is often the best and only recourse. Beyond striving for the best possible outcomes for the children they work with, managing complicated cases (sometimes as many as 100 children’s cases per lawyer and social worker), and traveling to meet each of their child clients where they are (a collective 70,000 miles per year for kids who live in foster homes in and outside of the county), the heart of their work is, well, heart. “Ensuring that children know that their opinion matters in the important decisions being made about their lives by lots of other adults is critical,” says Mateer. 

The EBCLO team’s holistic approach means that, in addition to amplifying children’s voices in court proceedings, they are also playing many other roles and constantly assessing the children’s need for support in other areas of their lives: educational, mental health, and development support, to name just a few. The EBCLO team knows that while the work is complex, it is critical that they do it, even if the positive results sometimes take years to be seen.  

Mateer remembers the case of a young man named Andrew who had been a client in the dependency system for many years but became addicted to drugs before he disappeared without a word upon emancipation. That was eight years ago. In May, Andrew reached out to Mateer, wanting to reconnect. “He’s been sober for two years and has a steady job driving a truck. He did that on his own, and yet somehow he remembered me,” Mateer shared, recalling what Andrew shared about his journey to stability in his adulthood. “It’s the best job in the world, and I feel really privileged to do it.”