January 21, 2012
In the Media
Lessons Learned Through Child Welfare Litigation
Alet A. Brown
American Bar Association
January 9, 2012
We all have our idea of demons. If asked, we can visualize and
describe them without hesitation. When I entered the field of child
advocacy, I had one demon in mind—a demon I crafted after years of
working with underprivileged youth and listening to their
heartbreaking tales of trauma at home: the parent. It was my
mission—no, my destiny—to protect innocent children from their
abusive parents. I would be to child advocacy what Batman was to
Gotham City, and there would never be a shortage of villains. Yet,
when I finally experienced child advocacy, something unexpected
happened. I found myself humanizing the people I was so certain
were at the root of the problem. My perspective of the field was
slowly shifting, and my outlook on the lives of these children and
their families was changing along with it. I was transforming from
an eager student attorney to a budding child advocate, and I was
surprised that I could credit such growth to one of the villains in
my own Gotham City.
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Alet A. Brown '12 is a student in the Law School's in-house
Child Advocacy Clinic, part of the St. Vincent de Paul Legal
Program, Inc. To learn more about the Child Advocacy Clinic, please
contact us.