The Support Center for Child Advocates teams dedicated and competent volunteer lawyers with experienced child advocate social workers and staff attorney consultants to provide legal and social work services to child victims of abuse and neglect through a “whole child” representation model. Lawyers and paralegals from many of the Philadelphia-area law firms and corporate legal offices represent children in child welfare and custody court proceedings. Our dedicated Board of Directors provides diligent fiscal and programmatic oversight and promotes our work in the community. Hundreds of generous donors and lay volunteers help to advance our work through special events like the Child Advocates Golf Classic, Holiday Toy Drive and Philadelphia Bar Association 5K Run/Walk.
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A. Nicole Friant
A Volunteer Child Advocate
A. Nicole Friant is Pro Bono Counsel, Duane Morris LLP .
Q: What do you do when you are not volunteering with the Support Center for Child Advocates?
A. I am pro bono counsel for Duane Morris LLP, and manage and direct the firm's national Pro Bono Program.
Q: How did you learn about Child Advocates and why do you volunteer?
A. I first learned about Child Advocates shortly after law school, when a close friend began working there. I have been volunteering with Child Advocates for the last decade because I love working with kids, and want to help those in Philadelphia who are without the basics that every child deserves: security, safety and stability. The children with whom I work bring me joy, and I feel privileged to advocate for them.
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Naketa Thigpen, MSS,
LSW
Director of Outcomes in Behavioral Health Project
When Naketa Thigpen says that she is a child advocate, she means
it.
As a little girl, Naketa wanted to be a pediatrician and psychologist.
At age 12, she left her grandmother’s home to help her mother
raise her youngest brother for two years. And when she began her
undergraduate work at Drexel University, she focused on pre-med
classes to help fulfill her dream of helping kids. Though she
graduated with a triple major in psychology, sociology and anthropology,
her purpose never changed. For Naketa, life has always been about
helping children.
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