U of M Law School Launches Foster Care Prevention Program ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - The Law School teamed up with Wayne County's Department of Human Services to open up the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy.

The goal is to help keep kids out of foster care by providing free legal aid to at-risk families, like helping a mother get a restraining order against an abusive spouse, or securing a guardianship order for a grandmother.

Vivek Sankaran is the U of M lawyer who heads up the program.

"Typically prevention work is mentoring and tutoring and in-home therapy. But our hypothesis is that there's legal advocacy that can be done that can help prevent kids from entering foster care."

Sankaran says the Center will be able to help 600 kids on Detroit's Eastside. If the program is successful, he hopes to expand it to other parts of Wayne County.

© Copyright 2010, Michigan Radio