About DAC
We believe every parent and child has a right to be treated with dignity, compassion and respect
Dependency Advocacy Center (DAC), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, provides interdisciplinary family defense legal services to parents and children involved in Santa Clara County’s informal and formal child welfare system.
Our adult clients face the risk of permanent separation from their children due to allegations of abuse and neglect. Substance use disorder, intimate partner violence, and mental health concerns are commonly presenting issues, often rooted in the layered effects of poverty, marginalization, and intergenerational trauma.
VISION
Empower families to break cycles of system involvement and marginalization
MISSION
Preserve families and restore dignity through zealous advocacy
IMPACT
Every client will have meaningful access to justice in the pursuit of their family wellbeing
Our approach to advocacy
DAC was founded on the belief that traditional legal advocacy is insufficient to adequately represent our parent and youth clients.
The holistic support offered by DAC’s interdisciplinary team of attorneys, social workers, and mentor parents provides parents and children with a more comprehensive network of resources and pathways to success.
Family Defense
Providing a skilled interdisciplinary team to offer holistic client support
Prevention
Employing early intervention strategies to help prevent the need for initial or prolonged system involvement
Systems Change
Encouraging system improvement through innovative programming and child welfare best practices
Creating real change
Families don't experience the child welfare system through a single moment or a single challenge. DAC's impact can be seen in the outcomes achieved with individual families, the stability those outcomes create over time, and the changes that make the system work better for everyone it serves.
Prevention
Families stay together before they ever reach a courtroom.
Through our Corridor program (and the First Call for Families prevention program that operated from 2021 - 2026), most families who receive early support never enter the formal system at all.
90%+ of children remained with their parent or guardian at case close
~72% of families had no new DFCS contact within six months of exiting
Family Defense
For families navigating dependency court.
DAC helps them through Social Workers, Attorneys and Mentor Parents.
10,000+ parents and children served through family defense cases
Systems Change
DAC's work extends beyond individual cases.
Staff, leadership, and Mentor Parents help shape child welfare practices by contributing to committees, task forces, trainings, and conferences at the local, state, and national level.
Training & Education
DAC staff and Mentor Parents train judges, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs), social workers, community members, and system partners, and regularly present at local, state, and national conferences.
Committees & Initiatives
Participation in various committees on a national, statewide and local level:
American Bar Association’s National Alliance for Parent Representation
Family Justice Initiative
Pre-Petition Family Defense National Cohort
California’s Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting Task Force
Santa Clara County’s Parent Advisory Group
Santa Clara County’s Children System of Care (AB2083)
Santa Clara County’s Family First Prevention Committee
After DAC’s involvement
Families who are served by a DAC mentor parent or social worker in addition to the attorney are assessed over time using the Self-Sufficiency Matrix, a structured tool scored from 1 (in crisis) to 5 (thriving). Across all tracked cohorts, clients showed meaningful, consistent gains in the domains most predictive of family stability.
1 = in crisis
2 = vulnerable
3 = safe
4 = building capacity
5 = thriving
⬤ At intake
⬤ At case close
Want to learn more?
These studies include quantitative analyses of client self-sufficiency changes, program outcomes for participating families, qualitative analysis of clients, and staff perspectives on the program's value.