Program areas at Wyoming Childrens Law Center
Free Legal Services Program: Provide free legal services to low-income clients who qualified at 200% of poverty or less. Legal services are offered to clients across the state of Wyoming. The legal issues must involve a child or vulnerable adult's health, safety, education or general welfare. Center cases include special education law, school discipline, guardianships, custody disputes, juvenile court proceedings and involuntary commitments. This program is funded by grants from Equal Justice of Wyoming, a program supervised by the Wyoming Supreme Court and the Equal Justice Wyoming Foundation, which manages and provides grants from the State's IOLTA program to provide legal assistance to low-income citizens of the State.
Sliding Fee Legal Services Program for Modest Means Clients: The Center provides reduced fee legal services to modest means clients who do not qualify for free legal services when their legal service need involves issues related to a child or vulnerable adult's health, safety, education or wellbeing. Cases include special education law, school discipline, guardianships, custody disputes, juvenile court proceedings and involuntary commitments. This program is funded primarily by the fees collected from clients with supplemental help from donations and general grants and reserve funds generated by fee recoupments.
Family Tree Program: Provides free mediation, parent education, and supervised visitation and exchange services for parents involved in custody disputes. The Center provides these services to parents to help address and resolve disputes that often impacts their children's health, safety and wellbeing and to help families avoid formal legal processes whenever possible. Services are funded through a grant from the Wyoming Department of Family Services Child Support Division, which in turn is funded by a federal Access and Visitation grant. Center reserve funds were used to cover the required ten percent match until October of 2019, when the Community Foundation provided a grant to cover match requirements.
Advocacy work: Juvenile Justice Reform Project, the Center formed the Wyoming Youth Justice Coalition to build grass root support for reforming Wyoming's Juvenile Justice System. The primary focus was the elimination of juvenile fees and fines during 2022. Work includes building partnerships with knowledgeable professionals and developing educational materials to inform stakeholders and the public of specific problem areas that will be the priority for reforming during each year.