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Jill G. Jones-Soderman, LCSW, Clinician/Child Advocate
10 Cornelison Ave, Nyack
(845) 353-6111
By way of introduction, I am a licensed clinical social worker in the State of New York and a practicing psychotherapist/ forensic consultant. In addition to my private practice, I am the Founder and Executive Director of The Foundation for the Child Victims of the Family Courts.
My office and that of the Foundation are in Nyack, Rockland County. Our interests are Nationwide and International as we are also extremely concerned about the connections between the abduction of children from the US and the international difficulties in having the rights of American children returned to American parents. Even though the US has signed the Hague Treaty, the US enforcement Treatery, is virtually non existet an d has created an atsmpphere foruu of intenmation ramacations. Further, we are finding that one of the elements of retaliation against parents who win cases against child protective services is that Child Protective Service Agencies are able to have a parent with even remote connections to another country – even when that parent is an American Citizen, deported without any due process procedure.
As you are well aware, the impact of divorce on families can be devastating, especially the long- term consequences to children “caught in the middle”, or in the power struggle/tugof war that are the hallmarks of high conflict divorce litigation. Lawyers and judges throughout the country involved in divorce work, spearheaded by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, are looking to mitigate the negative impact on children, but there exists little accurate, deep diagnostic understanding of the family dynamics, or accurate psychosocial diagnostics relevant to the consequences to children from fractured families.
To meet this need, the Foundation has inter alia, sponsored the distribution at no charge of a book, “How to Talk to Your Children About Divorce”, that provides guidance for attorneys and divorcing parents on keeping children as healthy and happy as possible. The Foundation has already received, through the AFCC referrals to family courts more than 60, 000 requests for the book – which has been translated into Spanish
And will be forwarded to all courts in the US and Canada, as well as a law school in Canada who have requested the book.
The Foundation has a truly distinguished and active board composed of attorneys, pediatric physician, teachers, child advocates, writers, not only from New York, but also from states across the country and the UK. Board members commitment have been such
that members regularly fly in to New York to be present at meetings and conferences that we have been sponsoring, dealing with controversial issues that no one else will touch.
Our friends/advisory board is equally outstanding and active as contributors.
We are eager to engage/partner with/support organizations and professionals who share our profound concerns related to public policy and legal functions which are obfuscating
due process procedure, violation of rights leading to the destruction of the most vulnerable members of society – those with vulnerable exposure or those whose rights are abrogated due to age, illness, limited knowledge of laws and legal procedure.
Our educational/training and legal agenda includes legislation and assistance with focused law suits on a Federal and State level. One of the legal concerns with which we are struggling is to achieve proper balance between the role of child protection agencies – such as New York ACS and the New Jersey State DYFS – and the rights of parents stripped of parental rights related to conveyor belt time processes with gears timed by administrative hearing procedures impervious to legal intervention and the rule of law.
Children are warehoused in a foster care system, protected by the layers of bureaucracy afforded by government agencies. Government policy creates a feeding frenzy in a direction of termination of parental rights or family reunification depending on the direction of funding legislation. Children’s rights are abrogated to guardian ad litem – another layer of bureaucracy, subject to affiliation processes contributing to violation of Constitutional rights and further trauma to children, loss of childhood, family, the construction of a thoroughly institutionalized population – possibly ready for military service, mental hospitalization, or prison.
