August 2007 . . . 2nd Annual Motorcycle Rally Benefits "Diaper Duty" Intern Project

Over 120 motorcycle enthusiasts roared into the parking lot at the Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center, complete with police escort and accompanied by a Wal-Mart truck loaded with toys and diapers, as part of the 1st annual Toy Rally in the Valley! When all was said and done, the Diaper Duty storage closet was completely re-stocked . . . Read more »

May 2007 . . . UVA CHAP Team Attends National Medical-Legal Summit in Toronto

CHAP team members  Christianne Queiroz, Kimberly Emery, and Diane Pappas attended this year's National Medical-Legal Summit that brought together attorneys and physicians from around the country who are all engaged in medical-legal partnerships to promote patient care. At the summit, the UVA CHAP team was identified as one of the core leader sites for the Capacity and Sustainability Workgroup, charged with identifying and evaluating the best practices for adequate capacity and long-term sustainability of medical-legal partnerships; the workgroup will conduct its analysis over the next year and present its results at next year's summit. Currently, there are over 70 such partnerships in the U.S. and plans are underway to develop a Virginia network connecting health care providers and legal aid providers throughout the state.

January 2007 . . . UVA Medical and Law Schools Team-Up to Help Those in Poverty

WVTF Public Radio, Sean Tubbs reporting . . . Hear all about it at the  podcast.

2006 . . .$1 Million Foundation Gift to Endow the UVA Child Health Advocacy Program

Thanks to a generous $1 million gift from the Richmond-based Burford Leimenstoll Foundation, the University of Virginia Child Health Advocacy Program will be able to provide critical assistance - in the form of legal aid, emergency funds, and resource referral - for families whose children are treated at the UVA Children's Hospital . . .
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2006 . . . Richmond Launches Child Health Advocacy Program

Richmond physicians and attorneys are joining to establish a new Child Health Advocacy Program in Virginia. The program is a partnership between the Richmond Legal Aid Justice Center, the Virginia Commonwealth University Children's Medical Center, and the University of Richmond School of Law. It is modeled on the Child Health Advocacy Program developed and on-going at the University of Virginia. Team members include Dr. Sean McKenna, attorneys Pat Lavelle and Marcel Slag, Professor Margaret Bacigal, and pediatric social worker Jeanette Winder Tipling. The program will serve patient families who receive medical care at VCU Children's Medical Center and will focus on housing issues, including substandard living conditions and landlord-tenant issues.

2006 . . . CHAP Receives Boston Medical-Legal Partnership for Children Award!

The Child Health Advocacy Program has received a $20,000 grant from the Medical-Legal Partnership in Boston. This money will be used to further develop the Child Health Advocacy Program, a collaborative between the University of Virginia Children's Hospital, the University of Virginia Law School, and the Legal Aid Justice Center. The Child Health Advocacy program works to increase the accessibility of needed legal services to families served by the UVA Children's Hospital. Many families, especially those with an ill child, have problems with housing, public benefits, and family issues that can be addressed with appropriate legal resources. By making this service available within the health care system, families will be better able to address these issues and optimize the health of their child and the overall well-being of the whole family.

Plans are underway to engage a full-time program attorney on-site to provide legal "triage" and direct legal services for patient families beginning in early 2007. The program attorney will also be available to provide education and training to residents and hospital staff about issues that may affect their patients, how to identify needs, and how to refer families for services. In future, volunteer law students will also be available to work with families under the supervision of the program attorney.

The Child Health Advocacy Program is based on a model developed at Boston Medical Center.  There are now over 30 sites across the country and Boston's Medical-Legal Partnership for Children is developing a national network of such partnerships "to support the national implementation of legal advocacy as a tool to augment traditional preventive pediatrics." Our program is one of 15 across the country to receive this support.

2006 . . . Child Health Advocacy Program Receives $125,000 Award!

The Jessie Ball duPont Fund award will provide funding over the next three years to hire a full-time staff attorney to work on-site at the UVA Children's Hospital to assist families with legal needs that affect child health and well-being. Physicians, social workers, and other health care providers are trained to screen families during medical visits about issues of food, housing, benefits, and adequate resources for basic needs. Once needs are identified in these areas, families are referred to the Child Health Advocacy Program, where staff from the Legal Aid Justice Center and volunteer law students work together to address the problems.

(Pictured: Child Health Advocacy Program Co-Directors, Dr. Diane Pappas, M.D., J.D., left, Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, University of Virginia Children's Hospital, and Kimberly Emery, Esq., right, Assistant Dean for Pro Bono and Public Interest, University of Virginia Law School)

The Child Health Advocacy Program was started as a pilot program in 2004, serving 88 families in its first year. This program is the only one of its kind in Virginia, but a statewide network of programs linking the legal aid network, the academic medical centers, the law schools, and the hospitals is currently being planned. The program is modeled on a similar program developed at the Boston Medical Center.

The program attorney will be responsible for providing direct client services within the clinical setting, as well as training medical staff about legal issues; he or she will also be involved in the development of a statewide network of Child Health Advocacy Programs and in the development and implementation of systemic policy advocacy to seek positive changes for families and children in the Commonwealth.