The information in this blog post is current as of April 16, 2025.
We wanted to share some updates to the ABA Children’s Immigration Law Academy (CILA) website.
Staying Connected with CILA
We encourage practitioners to create a CILA account on our website to gain access to more CILA resources. Accounts are available to attorneys, legal staff, pro bono coordinators, and social services staff. You can learn more about CILA accounts here.
For those who already have a CILA account, keep in mind as seasons change and emails do too, you can update your CILA account information with your new email. Simply, log into your CILA account, go to your “Account Info” and update your email. If you use your email as your username, then the updated email address you include will be your username going forward. Your password will remain the same. Please also let us know that you updated your email. Send a quick note to cila@abacila.org with your email change so we can stay connected. We added these instructions to the CILA account login as a reminder as the image shows.
New CILA Resources Index
CILA is excited to share that we created a new detailed “Index of CILA’s Resources by Topic” that lists all of the written resources available on our website for CILA account holders. We created this index in response to feedback shared by advocates in a survey CILA sent last year asking for ways we could improve the website and accessibility of resources. This index is designed to make it easier to find resources on CILA’s website and includes direct links to access the resources. Because many of CILA’s resources require an account to access, advocates are encouraged to sign up for a CILA account here. The index is available to account holders on your dashboard. You can also directly find the index here if you are logged in.
Your dashboard should be visible when you log in. The image below also shows how you can use the menu to navigate to the dashboard if you do not see it after logging into your account.
Finding CILA Resources
CILA publishes our resources on our website. We recently revamped the page on CILA’s website titled “CILA Resources At A Glance.” This is a public-facing webpage that has links to a few CILA resources that do not require a CILA account to access. For example, CILA’s publicly available resources include an explainer Unaccompanied Minors in Immigration Court: The Critical Role of Legal Representation, and the short Fact Sheet: Unaccompanied Children at the Border with background information on unaccompanied children and their advocacy needs, as well as a comprehensive Pro Bono Guide for Working with Children and Youth in Immigration Cases with an overview of what to expect in an immigration case, common forms of legal relief, and essential advocacy skills.
CILA’s blog, Together for Children’s Rights Updates, is also publicly available and provides legal updates, shares useful resources, and uplifts children’s advocates. We encourage you to check out our blog post series on Litigation Updates, Supporting Our Clients in the Interim by Rescreening for Relief, and Ethics and Working with Unaccompanied Children.
For CILA account holders, all of our written resources are available on the additional resources page. You can access “Additional Resources” from the main menu or dashboard after logging in to your account. The red circle in the image below shows where you can click on your account home page to access CILA’s additional resources page.
To stay up to date on newly created or updated CILA resources, sign up for a CILA newsletter: Champions for Immigrant Youth (monthly) and/or Pro Bono Matters (quarterly) or follow us on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn.
CILA appreciates the work being done by advocates to help immigrant youth and children. We know times are challenging, and we want to make it easier to stay up to date and find the materials you need to support you in your work. Our goal is that this blog post and CILA’s new resource index help you find the materials you are looking for quickly! Contact us at cila@abacila.org if you have any questions.