Legal Services for Children (LSC) is a Bay Area non-profit that provides legal services to all kinds of children & youth in the area. It has been taking a lead on coordinating non-profits in the area, who are working to address the surge of unaccompanied children coming from Central America.
LSC represents some children directly, and it coordinates a wider network of service-providers — screening clients and referring them to appropriate counsel & resources.
It has been raising money to increase services to the unaccompanied children.
Our goal is to protect the basic human rights and prevent the unnecessary and inhumane deportation of unaccompanied immigrant children. Your contribution will provide funding for an attorney to work directly with detained and released unaccompanied immigrant children in the San Francisco Bay Area. On average, our clients are 14-17 years old, although we have encountered children in detention as young as age 6. They come from all over the globe with the majority from Central America.
Obtaining legal status is the first step for unaccompanied immigrant youth to avoid deportation and establish stable lives as fully integrated and productive members of our community. In this way, LSC makes a difference one child at a time and it is change that lasts a lifetime. It is also change that directly benefits the communities where our clients live.
LSC is leading the response to the influx of unaccompanied immigrant children in San Francisco and the Greater Bay Area. Each year we provide legal screening, know-your-rights and other short-term advocacy to 500-700 immigrant children. And we represent well over 150 immigrant children in claims for legal relief that allow them to stay in the country with legal status.
These numbers have been rising steadily over the past several years, but with the recent influx of youth from Central America we expect them to double if not triple. And that’s just us here at LSC. Which is why we have brought together a group of Bay Area advocates who working on a coordinated plan to assist these vulnerable youth. Please scroll down to learn more and how you can help.
Here is a video from their site, with more details about unaccompanied minors:
