Children's Advocacy Institute

Your gift to the Children’s Advocacy Institute empowers USD Law students and faculty to change the systems shaping the lives of vulnerable children through law, policy, education, and advocacy.

For more than 37 years, CAI has prepared generations of future lawyers to advocate for children at the local, state, and national levels.

Continued donor support has made it possible for more than 1,100 law students to advocate for children through CAI, carrying what they learn into legislatures, agencies, and communities across the country.

Your investment in CAI supports vital, ongoing work to protect children and strengthen the policies shaping their lives. Recent highlights of this impact include:

• Launching the LEGACY Project (Legal Advocacy for Children and Youth) to bring direct legal aid to San Diego youth experiencing homelessness, addressing critical issues affecting their safety and stability.
• Ensuring online safety for kids by holding social media platforms accountable to parents and children for knowingly or willfully addicting children and causing harm.
• Advancing legislation to preserve family connections, helping foster youth maintain critical family relationships while in and after leaving the system.
• Safeguarding federal benefits for foster youth by strengthening protections around Social Security assets and ensuring young people have a voice in managing their resources.

At every level of CAI’s work, students are actively involved—conducting research, drafting legal materials, developing procedures, and participating in client meetings at the shelter.

Your generosity equips USD Law students with hands-on advocacy skills while simultaneously advancing critical policies for the protection of children and families nationwide.