Organizations and Websites That May Be Helpful for Protective Parents

National NOW Family Law ad hoc Advisory Committee
Description and further information.

The Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence
The Leadership Council is a non-profit organization committed to providing professionals and lay persons with the latest scientific information on issues that may affect the public's health and safety. The council seeks to correct the misuses of psychological science to serve vested interests or justify victimizing vulnerable populations -- especially abused and neglected children. Legal updates are provided on important cases and Amicus Briefs in various cases are posted.

For research on protective parents and their history of treatment in the family courts, see this website.

CAVNET (Communities Against Violence Network)
On main page, scroll down on the left hand side for the button to public Entry. Enter and select Issue Directory. The Issue Directory is large, but specific information can be targeted. The results for Child Custody (toward the bottom) bring up more than 120 sources of information including papers, argument, bench books, cases, conferences and resources, reports, protective parents' and other organizations and research, and includes all topics relating to custody litigation. Other Issues of note also include Guardians Ad Litem/Child Protective Services and Human Rights/Women and Children.
Resources in the CAVNET selection menu provides a comprehensive listing of helping organizations by country and by individual states in the U.S. and include websites and brief descriptions of the services provided. Organizations dedicated to custody issues are not complete here, and are more inclusive on the Child Custody Issues listing.

Custody Preparation for Moms (Alaska)
This site offers articles, direction to online support groupsand warning about posting on the web if you are in a legal battle over custody. This site also has a suggested reading list and links to other organizations working on the issue of mothers and custody.

California Protective Parents Association
The mission of the California Protective Parents Association is to protect children from incest and family violence through research, education and advocacy. There are a few broken links on the website, but the organization is active and most of the information is useful. The listed Internet Resources are especially appropriate for custody litigants where domestic violence and sexual abuse is an issue.

See also their: resources and research

Women's Justice Center (California)
This is the site of the Women's Justice Center, located in Sonoma County, CA, whose mission is to provide advocacy for victims of rape, domestic violence and child abuse, provide advocacy training and community education, increase the number of women and minorities in law enforcement and promote equal justice for women and girls. The site is bilingual (Spanish and English) and provides help to women escaping violent situations and navigating the law enforcement system through advocacy. The site contains an online handbook for women navigating their way through the criminal justice system that provides links to other resources.
Women's Justice Center's website is a comprehensive site for women preparing for family court, prepared by advocates who have experienced these problems.

Mothers of Lost Children (California)
This site provides general information on a number of topics and issues, including the dynamics of and responding to child abuse, navigating the court system, conducting oneself in court, and selecting an attorney. A host of links to other informative sites is available. Membership is free and reserved for protective mothers who may access on-line support, exchange stories and share experiences and strategies.

F.A.C.T.S. (Florida)
Site for Families Against Court Travesties, located in South Florida. An action group dedicated to assuring that due process and the best interests of the child standard is applied in family court custody litigation, through court watching, political activism and education.

Illinois Coalition for Family Court Reform
Dedicated to influencing legislative change in Illinois, this is a grassroots activist effort by mothers in Illinois who banded together and continue to organize for justice in the family courts in their state.

Massachusetts Protective Mothers for Custodial Justice, Inc. (Email)
Referrals and resources for protective parent organizations and national organizations providing assistance to mothers in family court litigation. The site contains mostly Massachusetts-specific information, providing online support and advocacy regarding in-state mothers in litigation in family court.

Battered Mothers' Custody Conference (BMCC) [New York]
Battered Women, Abused Children, and Child Custody: A National Crisis, the focus of the Battered Mothers' Custody Conference, was created in 2003 by two mothers, Mo Therese Hannah, Ph.D. (Chair) of Latham, NY, and Liliane Heller Miller (Vice-Chair) of Charlotte, NC. BMCC's mission is to host a national public forum to address the many complex issues facing battered women and their advocates as they strive to protect themselves and their children in and out of family court.
The format of the conference continues to develop, along with the growing body of scholarly research and information documenting the rampant civil, legal, due process, and human rights violations of domestic violence victims and their children by family courts across the country. It includes presentations, round-table discussions, and question and answer sessions with nationally distinguished attorneys, researchers, writers, and mental health professionals, as well as domestic violence survivors and their children. BMCC also seek to foster healing and support for the thousands of mothers, children, attorneys and other supporting professionals whose lives are being adversely affected by this issue on a daily basis.
Battered Women, Abused Children, and Child Custody: A National Crisis/BMCC is a self-sustaining, grassroots phenomenon that is entirely the volunteer work product of its creators and presenters. They have no paid staff, nor are they financially supported by or affiliated with any particular group, organization, or political agenda. The conference is open to lay persons and is of special interest to advocates, social workers, psychologists, attorneys, judges, legal personnel, and others concerned with the civil, constitutional, and human rights violations of battered women and their children occurring in family courts nationwide.

Voices of Women Organizing -- VOW
The Voices of Women Organizing Project, known as VOW, is the main initiative of the Battered Women's Resource Center, a nonprofit that works to empower survivors of domestic violence. VOW aids advocates for survivors of domestic violence as they lead efforts to end violence, shape policies and improve services for battered women. Be sure to check their May, 2008 report and articles on the left hand side of the homepage.

The Parenting Project (Rhode Island)
This website is primarily for the Mathewson Street United Methodist Church in Providence, RI, but carries some information for the Parenting Project. Scroll down the left side of the home page until you get to the Parenting Project. Since 1996, the Parenting Project has helped survivors of domestic violence in their efforts to protect vulnerable children in custody and visitation cases in the Rhode Island Family Court. The information on the site contains op-eds from the Providence Journal by Anne Grant, an MSUMC parishioner who writes about changes needed in the custody courts; the blog she coordinates is here.

American Bar Association
A consumers' Guide to Legal Help, with a state-by-state listing of resources such as Lawyer Referral, Free Legal Help, Lawyer Licensing, Legal Information, Self-Help and Court Information. There is also information about who is licensed as a lawyer and what you can do if you have problems with your lawyer.

Legal Momentum -- Advancing Women's Rights
Legal Resource Kits - Publications Available for Download:
Divorce: A Guide for Women
Domestic Violence & Child Custody
Filing a Judicial Complaint in State Courts: An Overview
How to Find A Lawyer (English and Spanish)
Stalking

The Hague Domestic Violence Project
The Hague Domestic Violence Project's website is devoted to providing information to battered mothers, their advocates and attorneys, and judges hearing Hague Convention cases involving domestic violence cases. There is a searchable data on such cases; links to major Hague Convention websites, background publications and references, a Judge's bench guide, a list of U.S. attorneys who have represented clients in Hague Convention proceedings and a Brief Bank. Also included is a discussion of results from a National Institute of Justice Study which addressed the experiences of women who have come to the United States with their children after leaving an abusive relationship and then become involved in a legal dispute under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

UAADV: United Angels Against Domestic Violence
UUADV is a volunteer organization that provides assistance to domestic violence victims and survivors to help them locate local resources to overcome the effects of the abuse. Many of the volunteers are survivors of domestic violence, themselves, and. they also address the needs of sexual assault survivors and non-custodial mothers.