From the Director’s Chair
Notes from Executive Director Leslie Abraham

Summer is drawing to a close but I hope everyone is gearing up for the school year! Despite the lazy days of summer, CCS has been busy! Our estate sale fundraiser was a huge success. Due to generous donations and many items purchased, we raised more than $11,000! Thank you to our event host Stahancyk, Kent, Johnson & Hook, our Board, all of our donors and the community at large for supporting us in this exciting endeavor. And our special thanks go out to the high school student workers from SKJ&H who helped plan, organize and staff the event – without their hard work and enthusiasm, our fundraiser would not have been possible!

Nearly every judge in Multnomah County has appointed CCS to assist children embroiled in contentious divorce and custody cases. We have represented 40 children to date and continue to give a much-needed voice to each of these kids, whether it is in the courtroom or at the settlement table.

Enthusiasm in the legal community for representing children continues to grow! Mark your calendars for our all-day seminar on Effective Representation of Children, which will take place on Friday, November 30, 2007, at the World Forestry Center in Portland. Please contact us for further details.

Thank you for your continued support – we could not do it without you!

Spotlight on Our Child Clients

*As always, the names of our clients and any identifying details about their lives have been changed to protect their privacy.

CCS jumpstarts the negotiation process when parents are at an impasse.

The parents of Jake* (age 10), Nick* (age 6) and Tim* (age 2) could not agree on parenting time and each refused to budge from their position. As the case stretched on without a viable resolution, the dispute began to take its toll on the children. A CCS attorney was appointed to assist the children and hopefully help the parents break their stalemate.

Through discussions with each parent, CCS helped the parties take their focus off of their pain and anger, and put it back onto the needs of their children where it belongs. CCS encouraged the parents to get back into mediation and try to create a parenting plan that met the needs of their children – and they did.

Quote of the Month: September

“Children have more need of models than of critics.”

- Joseph Joubert, French essayist (1754-1824)

Back to School During and After Divorce: Tips to Help Your Child Adjust
Excerpted from “Kids, Divorce and School Success” by Linda Rosenthal, GreatSchools.

Going through a divorce can be a painful process for everyone involved. Children often feel caught in the middle and the stress can affect their performance in school.

But it doesn’t have to be all gloom and doom. Experts and parents who have been there say that with good communication, effective planning, heightened awareness of problems that might arise and time to iron out the difficulties, families can emerge with positive, supportive relationships that help kids remain successful in school.

Here are some tips to help:

• Get both parents in the communication loop: Fill out all school forms with the contact information for both parents. Request that the school send copies of grades, important announcements, classroom rosters, etc., to both parents. Stay informed and ensure that the other parent is informed as well.
• For younger children, agree on and follow a consistent after-school routine: Snack, playtime then homework? Or homework first? Parents should also try to coordinate with each other about the child’s after-school activities.

• Make both homes homework-friendly: Keep school supplies at both houses. Make sure the child has an organized way for transporting things from one home to another, including homework assignments and the materials needed to complete those assignments.
• Make every effort to attend school events and parent-teacher conferences: If possible, try to attend the parent-teacher conference together so that what one parent hears, the other parent hears too, and at the same time. If the relationship is too contentious or logistics make it impossible, schedule separate conferences to keep both parents involved.
• For older children, create a plan for after high school: Do both parents agree the child should go to college? Can they agree on a range of costs and what each parent is willing to pay for tuition? Which parent will take the child to visit schools and how will the other parent be involved?

GreatSchools, 2007. For the full article, visit www.greatschools.net

CCS Represented at National Conference for Children’s Lawyers
By Jenny Gilmore, Staff Attorney

On August 15-18, CCS joined over 1,000 children’s lawyers from across the nation to meet, compare notes and learn from the experts at the National Association of Counsel for Children’s 30th Annual Juvenile and Family Law Conference in Keystone, Colorado.

As CCS’s representative, I was thrilled to participate in seminars with some of the most prestigious names in child legal advocacy. Noted professor and child interviewer, Thomas Lyon, JD/PhD from the University of Southern California School of Law, lectured on effective child interview techniques and graciously shared a protocol for interviewing children in a non-leading manner. Kathleen Faller, PhD from the University of Michigan, gave an especially helpful talk on child abuse disclosures in custody disputes and offered helpful suggestions for cases in which the allegation cannot be resolved definitively either way. Finally, attorneys Craig Bunnell and Alicia Davis presented a topic that was right up our alley: how to assist children in high conflict divorces.

I came away with an incredible amount of information that will be helpful to our practice at CCS but perhaps the most valuable aspect of the conference was the opportunity to speak with and learn from other attorneys who represent children in custody disputes. I was surprised to discover that, as an organization, CCS is unique – few agencies dedicated solely to representing children in family conflicts exist currently, although more are founded every year – but it was gratifying to see the legal community recognize and respond to the need for child advocacy in custody disputes. The presence of over 1,000 attorneys at the conference was proof of that!

Thank you to everyone who made my experience in Colorado possible – particularly Howard and Blake Hedinger, and Charlene Sabin. I had a wonderful time and am excited to put the lessons I learned to good use!

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CCS is a public benefit corporation that has been incorporated in the state of Oregon and is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)3 tax exempt status.

© 2007 Child Centered Solutions