Conferences and Symposia That Inspire and Educate
For over 20 years, CFCC has organized and hosted dozens of influential conferences and symposia, featuring speakers who are leaders in family justice reform and hundreds of participants from across the country. We also have presented at close to 100 conferences, symposia and workshops – worldwide – further sharing important perspectives on the policy and practice of family law and unified family courts.
Noteworthy
Urban Child Symposium
Since 2009, CFCC has convened a multidisciplinary panel of professionals to address some of the most pressing long-term and emerging challenges facing urban children, their families and their communities—and discuss best practices that offer hope for the future.
AFCC Trainings
CFCC and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) have partnered on annual family law trainings at the University of Baltimore School of Law since 2003, reaching more than 2,000 people. Topics have included advanced issues in child custody, parenting coordination and substance use, among many others.
In addition, Professor Barbara Babb and CFCC Staff have been speakers at numerous AFCC conferences. Our relationship with AFCC is unique among the various professional associations with which CFCC works. Most legal associations are primarily for judges, attorneys and court staff. AFCC’s membership and CFCC’s constituency embrace both legal professionals and court services providers, such as psychologists, social workers, therapists and more. Working together, all of these professionals can develop the best outcomes for families and children who come to court.
National Leadership Summit on School-Justice Partnerships
CFCC Founder and Director, Professor Barbara Babb and Senior Fellow Gloria Danziger presented on “Truancy – School Engagement and Re-engagement. Interdisciplinary teams consisting of educators, judges, and court staff from all 50 states attended this conference to develop strategies to address the dramatic increase in the number of juveniles who were truant, suspended, or expelled — and often arrested — in the nation’s school systems.
Families Matter Symposium
In 2010, CFCC and, the American Bar Association Section of Family Law collaborated to launch the multi-year “Families Matter” initiative. The Families Matter Symposium convened an interdisciplinary group of experts in the fields of psychology, law, accounting, and mediation to brainstorm about reducing the harmful effects of the legal process in family law cases. The symposium resulted in the publication Families Matter: Recommendations to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families in Court. Please see the Publications section of this blog.
Summit on Unified Family Courts: Serving Children and Families Efficiently, Effectively and Responsibly, May 2007
The American Bar Association (ABA) and the University of Baltimore School of Law Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC) sponsored the conference in Baltimore. The participants, representing 25 states, focused on unified family courts, designed to address the needs of families in a holistic manner. Under the UFC model, the courts attempt to resolve the family’s legal needs, including issues such as divorce, custody, child support, and domestic violence, among others, as well as to tackle non-legal needs, such as substance use, mental health issues, and family violence.
Through plenaries and breakout sessions, the conference covered issues critical to the development of unified family courts, including services and accountability; standards and measures to assess unified family courts; the critical need for judicial leadership and training; the ways to establish a unified family courts; addiction and other non-legal issues; collaboration in the legal community; and self-represented litigants. Participants were able to attend sessions, which covered the trajectory of unified family courts—from the early stages of UFC development to those involving well-established UFCs.
You can read more about this conference in the Fall 2007 UFC Connection, the inaugural issue, and the only publication in the nation focused on unified family courts.