State Parent Advocacy Groups

State Parent Advocacy Groups

Series: Related Organizations Lists
Author(s): Child Welfare Information Gateway

Includes associations, programs, and organizations throughout the United States that work to promote the safety, well-being, and permanency of families by empowering parents to be engaged in family life through education, support, advocacy, and outreach activities.

If you are aware of any other organizations, please contact Child Welfare Information Gateway at OrganizationUpdates@childwelfare.gov. Inclusion on this list is for information purposes and does not constitute an endorsement by Child Welfare Information Gateway or the Children's Bureau.

California

Making a Difference Association
1001 N. La Cadena Drive
Colton, California 92324
Phone: (909) 420-0413
Fax: (909) 514-0401
nadid: 28039
A Better Way
3200 Adeline Street
Berkeley, California 94703
Phone: (510) 852-1694
A Better Way is a comprehensive foster and adoptive services agency providing various services to children and families at risk or involved with the foster care system, including community training, parent advocacy, and behavioral health services. Its Parent Engagement Program provides a connection between parent advocates, who have navigated the child welfare system successfully, and those parents currently involved with child welfare services.
nadid: 27147
California Parent Engagement Center
Claremont, California 91711
Phone: (909) 621-6184 x220
The California Parent Engagement Center provides a list of programs in California where parents are engaging and partnering with professionals in direct services, trainings, public awareness, public education, policy, and systems change.
nadid: 27135

Colorado

Colorado Practitioners Network for Fathers & Families
Colorado
Phone: 1.877.695.7996
The Colorado Practitioners Network for Fathers & Families is a coalition of practitioners, fathers, administrators, and other stakeholders committed to enhancing services throughout Colorado that will help fathers maintain a healthy relationship with their children. The website provides a list of State organizations that focus on building and maintaining these healthy relationships.
nadid: 27160

Connecticut

PATH Parent to Parent/Family Voices of Connecticut
Northford, Connecticut 06472
Phone: 1-203-234-9554
PATH Parent to Parent/Family Voices of Connecticut offers many services to families of children with special health-care needs. One of these programs is a one-to-one matching service in which a parent with understanding and experience caring for a child with special health-care needs provides emotional support and assistance to another parent in a similar situation.
nadid: 27152
Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center
338 Main Street
Niantic, Connecticut 06357
Toll-Free: 800-445-2722
The Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center (CPAC) is a statewide nonprofit that works with parents of children with any disability or chronic illness. CPAC, staffed by parents with professional and personal experience in the law and disability issues, provides education, training, and outreach to help other parents become more informed and prepared advocates for their children. The website provides a list of parent support groups throughout the State.
nadid: 27136

Delaware

Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children and Families
Delaware 19804
Phone: (302) 225-3011
nadid: 28040

Georgia

Families First
1105 West Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30309-3608
Phone: 404-853-2800
Phone: (404) 853-2867
nadid: 1070

Illinois

The Family Defense Center
70 E. Lake St
Suite 1100
Chicago, Illinois 60601
Phone: 312-251-9800
The Family Defense Center is a nonprofit organization that offers legal advocacy for families at risk of losing their children to the foster care system. The Family Defense Center provides direct representation, systemic advocacy, and grassroots activities for families that are experiencing difficulties with State child protection agencies.
nadid: 27154

Indiana

About Special Kids (ASK)
7172 Graham Rd
100
Indianapolis, Indiana 46250
Phone: 317-257-8683
About Special Kids (ASK) is a parent to parent organization working throughout the State to provide support, information, and resources to families with children with special needs. ASK uses a parent to parent model to offer families support, training on issues around special education and insurance programs, and referrals to community resources.
nadid: 27151

Kansas

Families Together, Inc.
Kansas
Phone: (316) 945-7747
Families Together, Inc. is a nonprofit organization providing training and information to parents with children with disabilities, encouraging parents to be effective advocates for their children. Families Together, Inc. offers a parent to parent program that matches parents needing support and encouragement raising their children with disabilities to a parent who has this experience and is committed to supporting others.
nadid: 27138
Kansas Family Advisory Network
Wichita, Kansas 67208
Toll-Free: 1-800-969-5764
Kansas Family Advisory Network (KFAN) is a nonprofit network of family partners, organizations, groups, and agencies that have collaborated to promote safety, permanency, and well-being for children and their families who are at risk or involved with the child welfare system. KFAN takes a non-adversarial approach toward partnering with child welfare agencies and educating children, families, policy makers, and the larger society to gain timely permanency outcomes for children and families.
nadid: 27137
The Arc of Sedgwick County
2919 W 2nd St
Wichita, Kansas 67203
Phone: 316-943-1191
The Arc of Sedgwick County promotes acceptance and involvement of people with intellectual disabilities and their families within the community, providing emotional support, accurate information, and direct serves that assist families meet their parenting responsibilities.
nadid: 27094

Michigan

Family Alliance for Change
3627 West Vernor Detroit, MI 48216
Detroit, Michigan 48216
Phone: (313) 531-2500
Family Alliance for Change, a division of Development Centers, Inc., is a parent-driven, peer-to-peer service offering support and education to parents with special needs children, empowering them to meet their family’s goals. It offers various support groups, father groups, and opportunities to advocate for policy changes by meeting with legislative representatives.
nadid: 27139

Minnesota

Minnesota Communities Caring for Children/Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota
709 University Avenue West
234
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55104
Phone: 651.523.0099
Minnesota Communities Caring for Children and Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota partner together to work on preventing child abuse and neglect by training parents to be leaders in their community, facilitating mutual self-help support groups for parents throughout the State through Circle of Parents®, and educating communities on prevention and resilience-building.
nadid: 27149

New York

GO Project
50 Cooper Square
3rd Floor
New York City, New York 10003
Phone: (212)533-3744
GO Project is a nonprofit organization serving academically struggling and under-resourced elementary and middle public school students from the Lower East Side and Chinatown in New York City. The GO Project offers a Parent Advocacy Leader Program in which parents can volunteer to become experts in the special education system to better support their own children as well as other children and parents in the community.
nadid: 27158
Center for Family Representation
40 Worth Street
Suite 605
New York City, New York 10013
Phone: (212) 691-0950
Center for Family Representation (CFR) is a nonprofit legal services organization working to keep families together and keep children out of the foster care system. Every client works with a team of professionals that includes a lawyer; social worker; and parent advocate, a trained professional who has firsthand experience with the child welfare system and has been successfully reunited with his or her children.
nadid: 27140
Child Welfare Organizing Project
80 E. 110th Street
#1E
New York, New York 10019
Phone: 212-348-3000
Child Welfare Organizing Project (CWOP) demands change and accountability in the New York child welfare system. CWOP hosts the Parent Advocate Network, which is run by CWOP-trained parent advocates (parents who have navigated the child welfare system successfully), and offers self-help support groups to parents involved in the child welfare system.
nadid: 26979

North Carolina

East Durham Children's Initiative
107 N. Driver St.
3rd Floor
Durham, North Carolina 27703
Phone: (919) 908-8709 ext. 102
East Durham Children’s Initiative (EDCI) is a nonprofit organization working to change the outcomes and expectations of children and families living in a 120-block of East Durham. The Initiative provides parent advocates for families in need of support, offering at-home visitations, information related to parenting, and referrals to community resources.
nadid: 27156
Our Children's Place of Coastal Horizons Center, Inc.
Durham, North Carolina 27709
Phone: (919) 904-4286
Our Children’s Place of Coastal Horizons Center, Inc. supports children of incarcerated parents by advocating for a statewide response to ensure their well-being. The Center presents workshops for professionals working with children, organizes a parent day at prison facilities, and works to identify policy areas in need of attention.
nadid: 27141

Ohio

National Coalition for Parent Advocacy in Child Protective Services
Ohio
The mission of the National Coalition for Parent Advocacy in Child Protective Services is to mobilize parents/caregivers and advocacy organizations to create positive public policy and program changes that prevent removal of children from their families by child protective services, strengthen and ensure the rights of families whose children have been removed, and return children to their families.
nadid: 28779

Oregon

Black Parent Initiative
2915 NE Martin Luther King Blvd
Portland, Oregon 97212
Phone: (503) 284-8000
Black Parent Initiative (BPI) works to educate and mobilize parents of Black and multiethnic children to ensure they achieve academic and lifelong success. BPI provides programs that focus on helping Black families strengthen their cultural identity, achieve stability, improve parenting skills, and connect with the community.
nadid: 27155
Morrison Child & Family Services
1500 NE Irving Street
Suite 250
Portland, Oregon 97232
Phone: (503) 258-4568
Morrison Child and Family Services operates Parents Anonymous® of Oregon and the Parent Mentor Program. Parents Anonymous® of Oregon is an evidenced-based family strengthening program that serves as a culturally responsive and community-based intervention and prevention program, and it offers a safe environment for parents seeking support. The Parent Mentor Program provides peer mentoring to parents impacted by addiction and involved with the child welfare system.
nadid: 27142

Tennessee

Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee
4721 Trousdale Drive
Suite 121
Nashville, Tennessee 37220
Phone: 615-383-0994
Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee (PCAT) works with professionals, parents, and communities to provide education and resources to strengthen families, educate the community, and prevent child abuse statewide. PCAT offers a parent helpline for parents in need of information, referrals, and empathy. PCAT also works to build leadership skills in parents to help them advocate for their own children and ultimately on behalf of families throughout the State by becoming instrumental voices on prevention program planning teams.
nadid: 27159

Texas

Parent Guidance Center
9600 Escarpment Blvd
Suite 745-255
Austin, Texas 78749
Parent Guidance Center is an advocacy organization that focuses on areas needing improvement in the child welfare system, bringing the parent voice to the table, recommending changes to policies and procedures, determining where money should be spent, and opposing negative parent legislation while supporting better legislation for families.
nadid: 29140

Washington

Birth Parent National Network
Seattle, Washington 98115
Together with its partners, the National Alliance of Children's Trust and Prevention Funds established the Birth Parent National Network (BPNN). BPNN consists of parents and organizations who are committed to improving policies for better outcomes for children and families with a focus on establishing parent leaders who are willing to share their challenges and successes across the country to impact change.
nadid: 27165
Parent Trust for Washington Children
2200 Rainier Avenue South
Seattle, Washington 98144
Phone: 206.233.0156
Parent Trust for Washington Children promotes safe, healthy families and communities by offering a variety of programs for families, including expectant and new parent services, Circle of Parents®, and Families in Recovery. These programs offer support, education, and leadership opportunities for parents in various situations.
nadid: 27153
Washington State Parent Ally Committee
Seattle, Washington 98115
Phone: 206-695-3238
Washington State Parent Ally Committee (WSPAC) is an association of Parent Allies who have successfully navigated the child welfare system and now collaborate to improve outcomes for those families entering the system. WSPAC works to strengthen and support families by bringing the parent voice into the development of child welfare policy and practice and advocating for parent leadership in direct service, training, and public awareness activities.
nadid: 27143