Senior Parent Advocate, Family Defense, Queens

The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Our goal is to defend and protect our clients’ rights, reduce the harm of family separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in the foster system. 

CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense with a model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct personal experience of being investigated and prosecuted by ACS. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams and now has 7 parent advocates working in all four of our family defense locations. CFR’s Community Advocacy Project represents parents during a child protective investigation (to avoid court involvement where possible) and assists parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records. 

As an agency committed to securing justice for families, we built the Youth Defense practice (YDP) to defend youth at risk of family separation through incarceration. YDP uses the same interdisciplinary model to represent youth being prosecuted in Queens and Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in Delinquency proceedings in Family Court. CFR’s Home for Good program provides legal and social work services to CFR clients in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters, to afford clients an efficient and well-coordinated one-stop solution to a range of issues that threaten family stability. 

Recognized as experts in our fields, we annually train over 500 practitioners in the city, state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and interdisciplinary representation, and we provide community based “Know Your Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that reduce the harm of family separation, and promote parent engagement and justice for youth and families.

CFR designed the Senior Parent Advocate position to create additional professional development opportunities for parent advocates that go beyond direct client representation and case management and provide CFR with additional administrative and program support. The position should build on acquired skills and professional development opportunities will include supervising and/or mentoring of new parent advocates, increased training opportunities and responsibility, and an increased policy role at and on behalf of CFR. The position is based in Queens. 

Responsibilities May Include:

● Recruitment and mentoring of new staff; (i.e., interviewing candidates, shadowing at conferences) 

● Assistance with training for new staff, existing staff and for outside participants 

● Assistance with training and technical assistance for outside professionals 

● Assistance with presentations at conferences and community based presentations in and outside of New York on CFR and its model 

● Providing guidance and assistance to CFR’s Civil Legal Services team to assist with housing and public benefits needs of CFR’s clients 

● Representing CFR in external policy efforts, including serving on committees, task forces, etc. and helping to inform CFR’s policy priorities 

● Input and Assistance with Development efforts where appropriate 

● Attend and present at conferences in and outside New York about the role of the Parent advocate at CFR 

● Coordination of special projects/initiatives 

● Supervision of Parent Advocates staff 

● Mentoring new Parent Advocate staff on intake, at conferences, in court and in the field 

         ● Provide input on writing materials, i.e., practice memos, development materials

A High School Diploma, GED, or relevant work experience is required, with prior experience preferred in areas such as the NYC family policing system, education, housing, public benefits systems, or other social justice-related work. Candidates for the Senior Parent Advocate role must have at least three years of experience at CFR and/or in related work with ACS, foster care agencies, court systems, or administrative proceedings, including but not limited to public benefits advocacy. Senior Parent Advocates should demonstrate strong programmatic skills, the ability to model best practices, and the capacity to integrate feedback while showing a clear commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and anti-racist work. They should also possess a desire to contribute to the stewardship of CFR and a willingness and aptitude to take on additional leadership responsibilities. Senior staff are expected to exhibit strong problem-solving skills and positively contribute to CFR’s work culture through productive communication and collaboration with staff at all levels. In addition, they must be well organized—managing CMS, CLN, and files effectively, while prioritizing tasks to ensure efficiency and effectiveness beyond their own caseload.

Location And Travel:

CFR is a primarily in-person workforce. This position will be based in Queens, with the expectation that the individual will provide supervision and client work primarily in that borough. While CFR offers a generous telecommuting policy that allows staff to work remotely when there are no in-person, client or organizational obligations, senior staff and management should expect to be regularly on-site to meet supervision, client, and operational needs. Additionally, this role may be required to provide support and travel to other boroughs as needed to ensure adequate coverage. 

Interested candidates: Interested internal candidates should apply via Paycom by close of business Friday,  September 19, 2025 by email to Recruitment@cfrny.org and copy their supervisor. Candidates should expect a selection process that includes, but is not limited to, interviews and possibly a writing exercise. 

Salary range: $77,100 (L3) - $95,700 (L18) annualized 

For internal promotions, CFR uses the staff member's current salary level placement plus the appropriate stipend (i.e. $10,000 for Senior Staff) when determining the above annualized salary.

CFR offers a generous compensation package, including a competitive base salary as well as health, 403(b) and vacation benefits.