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As a nonprofit organization, The Family Systems Collaborative is committed to making high-quality child advocacy support accessible. To sustain consistent, trauma-informed services, we use a modest partnership fee for participating attorneys and agencies. This fee helps cover direct service time while keeping costs low. Donor support and grant funding allow us to keep these fees minimal and ensure no child is ever denied support due to financial barriers.
Most partners pay between $150–$350 per month, depending on caseload and support level. This helps ensure sustainability while keeping child-focused advocacy 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 child advocacy centers 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 supports child advocacy and case services, so it is fully compliant.
We are currently building partnerships with:
Family law attorneys
Mediators
Parents navigating custody or parenting-time disputes
We are open to conversation with CFIs about how FSC's perspective might complement their work, and approach those partnerships 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 child and family dynamics: A social work lens applied to the human side of your cases — child development, trauma responses, family systems, 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 the children involved.
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 aim to support child-centered advocacy, 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 and CFIs. In practice this means:
Case consultation on child development and family system dynamics
Trauma-informed perspective to support your understanding of children and families
Resource identification and cross-system referrals
Collaborative conversation to strengthen child-centered advocacy
FSC is in its founding phase and is actively developing its service model in partnership with early collaborators.
CASA volunteers serve as court-appointed advocates for children who are parties to a dependency and neglect (child welfare) case.
FSC is different in several key ways:
We work across multiple types of legal cases—including family law, custody, divorce, and other matters where a child is affected, even if they are not a party to the case.
We are not volunteers—services are provided by a legally educated, master’s-level social worker with clinical and systems expertise.
We support attorneys and families directly, offering case consultation, child-development insight, trauma-informed recommendations, and collaborative planning.
We are not appointed by the court, so we can engage earlier, more flexibly, and with more continuity.
FSC complements—but does not duplicate—what CASA provides.
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 affecting children.
LESWs work alongside Legal Professionals to strengthen legal advocacy with trauma-informed, child-centered social work insight. Their role bridges the gap between social work and law, ensuring that every child’s voice is heard and their best interests are advocated for in legal proceedings.
No. FSC does not provide legal representation.
We provide social work expertise that strengthens how legal professionals understand and advocate for the children involved or impacted by a case.