We wanted to reach out during this time of uncertainty to let you know that CILA is committed to continuing our work building capacity for those working to advance the rights of children seeking protection through trainings, technical assistance, and collaboration.
We know that many legal service providers at this time are struggling to know how to best take care of their clients and staff–providing continuity of services as well as safeguarding the health of all concerned. As we are based in Houston/Harris County, Texas, where the Mayor and Harris County Judge have both declared public health emergencies and many school districts are closed, CILA also grappled with the same issues. As of today, the ABA has instructed as many of its workers to work from home as possible, so CILA’s office is now open virtually!
No matter where we may be physically located, CILA is committed to providing our same high quality services to all legal service providers that need it. We have had to cancel some of our upcoming in person trainings; however, the rest of our activities are ongoing. We are able to provide technical assistance, trainings and other resources, by drawing upon our already robust online systems. We will answer emails, phone calls, and web case assistance requests, and we will be continuing to update our blog, Legal Updates, and add resources to our website throughout this period. We will keep our calendar of events updated as well.
In the upcoming days and weeks we will continue to send out announcement and updates regarding our upcoming trainings, some of which we will shift online and others of which are far enough in the future we hope that they will take place once this current crisis has drawn to an end.
We know that the work for our client’s cases still needs to be done, even with EOIR temporary halting some in person hearings, but not all. We want to ensure that you all are still able to help our vulnerable clients in this extra time of need.
Thank you,
The CILA Team