The Massachusetts Bar Association welcomed back members of the Juvenile & Child Welfare Section to the UTEC Center in Lowell for the Sixth Annual Juvenile & Child Welfare Conference on May 3.
This year's conference centered on the theme of "Shutting Down the Pipeline: Proactive Representation of Youth in Need of Services" and featured a keynote address by Kate Lowenstein, JD, MSW. As an attorney and children’s advocate, Lowenstein focuses on how the trajectory of the cradle-to-prison pipeline might be bent in a more positive way.
The conference also included the presentation of the Fourth Annual Juvenile and Child Welfare Award to Arnold I. Abelow, who was honored for his tireless work on behalf of juvenile and adult defendants in Suffolk County since being admitted to the bar in 1969.
In addition, panels of experienced judges and attorneys discussed the following topics:
- Stopping the cradle-to-prison pipeline when seeking services
- Preventative Representation
- Services without state intervention
- Framing the mental health crisis and the response thus far
- Follow the data: you can't fix what you won't measure