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As a nonprofit organization, The Family Systems Collaborative is committed to committed to providing high-quality social work support for family law practices. To sustain consistent, trauma-informed services, we use a modest partnership fee for participating attorneys. This fee helps cover direct service time while keeping costs low. Donor support and grant funding allow us to keep these fees minimal so cost is never a barrier for attorneys serving families with limited means.
Most partners pay between $150–$350 per month, depending on caseload and support level. This helps ensure sustainability while keeping social work expertise within reach for every attorney.
Families receive services free of charge.
Why nonprofits charge fees
Many nonprofits, especially in healthcare, mental health, education, legal aid, and social services use a 'program service fee' model.
Examples include:
YMCA charging for swim lessons
Nonprofit clinics charging sliding-scale co-pays
Legal aid groups charging reduced fees for certain services
University clinics charging courts or counties
These fees are considered mission-based revenue, not profit.
The IRS allows nonprofits to:
Charge fees
Generate revenue
Pay staff
Earn more than they spend as long as funds stay in the nonprofit and support the mission
What nonprofits cannot do
Distribute profits to owners/shareholders (no one “owns” a nonprofit)
Charge fees unrelated to the mission
Your partnership fee directly funds social work consultation and case services, which keeps it within FSC's mission.
We are currently building partnerships with:
Family law attorneys
Mediators
We are open to conversation with CFIs about how FSC's perspective might complement their work, and approach those conversations thoughtfully given the specific standards and training that govern the CFI role.
When you work with The Family Systems Collaborative, you'll be working directly with Tricia, FSC's founder and a Legally Educated Social Worker (LESW). You can expect:
Consultation on family systems dynamics: A social work lens applied to the human side of your cases: trauma responses, child development and how these show up in legal proceedings.
Collaborative conversation: Regular check-ins to think through cases together, share perspective, and support your advocacy for your client.
Resource and referral support: Help identifying community services, mental health resources, or other systems that may be relevant to a case.
Honest communication: Consistent, straightforward communication about what FSC can and can't helpfully contribute.
FSC does not provide clinical evaluations, formal assessments, or legal advice.
While both support legal professionals, there are meaningful differences in structure and approach. FSC's work is led by Tricia, a Legally Educated Social Worker (LESW) with experience in both social work and legal systems.
LESW
Independent and nonprofit: FSC operates independently, offering flexible, relationship-based support tailored to each legal professional's needs, not assigned by a state agency or bound by its protocols.
Legally educated: The LESW background means bringing both social work training and an understanding of legal process to the consultation, bridging two systems that don't always communicate well.
Continuity: Legal professionals work with the same person across cases, building a genuine collaborative relationship over time.
Scope: FSC's role is consultative: a thought partner, not a case manager or supervisor.
Other Case Consultants
State-Assigned: Provided exclusively to GALs through the Office of the Child's Representative, and assigned based on availability rather than ongoing relationship.
Case-Specific: Engagement is often task-oriented and structured around OCR's internal protocols.
System-Driven: Operates within the structure and requirements of a state agency, which may limit flexibility and scope.
FSC provides social work consultation to family law attorneys. In practice this means:
Case consultation on child development and family system dynamics
Trauma-informed perspective to support your understanding of family dynamics
Resource identification and cross-system referrals
Collaborative conversation to inform case strategy
FSC is in its founding phase and is actively developing its service model in partnership with early collaborators.
An LESW is a Legally Educated Social Worker: a social worker with specialized training and experience in the legal systems, particularly in family law, custody, and related proceedings.
LESWs work alongside Legal Professionals to strengthen legal advocacy with trauma-informed, social work insight. Their role bridges the gap between social work and law, helping attorneys bring a fuller understanding of family dynamics into legal proceedings.
No. FSC does not provide legal representation.
We provide social work expertise that strengthens how legal professionals understand the families in a case and advocate for their clients.