Pelican Center

Pelican Center for Children and Families

The LBF has partnered with The Pelican Center for Children and Families, a nonprofit organization that serves as a comprehensive education and training resource to support effective practice among legal and other professionals serving Louisiana’s most vulnerable children and families. The LBF’s support of this partnership will augment ongoing training for attorneys who provide representation to abused and neglected children and whose work directly affects the safety, permanency and well-being of children in the foster care system. The Foundation will provide in-kind support to the Center through office space and other business amenities.

“The Pelican Center will provide comprehensive training and education opportunities for child welfare practitioners across systems–legal, executive, and community. A first for the state, this represents a tremendous asset for the State of Louisiana. The mission and vision of the Pelican Center will be accomplished through the design and delivery of a state-of-the-art curriculum that incorporates the latest scholarship and research, evidence-based and best practices and brings child welfare practitioners information in a consistent and accessible manner through a variety of learning modalities,” Ernestine S. Gray, Chief Judge, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court and Pelican Center President.

“The Pelican Center shows promise to become a national model for how states can best respond to the legal needs and judicial involvement of abused and neglected children and their families. It demonstrates a long-term commitment to having the courts meaningfully collaborate with key child welfare system stakeholders, while assuring that federal, state, private, and other funding can be pooled to help assure maximum positive impact for the state’s underserved children and families,” Howard Davidson, Director, ABA Center on Children and the Law.

Visit their website