Corey Best and Ivory Bennett co-authored and curated the introduction, Justice as the Through Line, for the National Association of Counsel for Children’s (NACC) forthcoming 4th Edition Child Welfare Law and Practice “Red Book”.
Best and Bennett demonstrate for the reader what they mean by effective legal representation. The guiding chapter offers lawyers and judges a view into the world of those impacted by family policing, and challenges them to question what “justice-centered” means to them. This is a call to action for judges and lawyers to become more than their position; “it is time to become a liberated agent of law, justice, and humanity!”
Best and Bennett’s core purpose of their expression is to ensure that justice-centered legal representation becomes an immovable marker of the quintessential, decolonized American child welfare system. The authors leave the audience with fifteen actions with which practitioners can LEAD: Learn, Explore, Act, and Discover. From this, their hope is the journey with this message will increase the presence of humanity, and values-driven legal representation for families.

BOOK INTRODUCTION

Ivory Bennett, M.Ed. is an educational leader, a national equity advocate for foster care and education, and an award-winning published author.
Corey Best is a dedicated father, and the founder of Mining For Gold, the curator of community experiences. The Mining For Gold movement of longing for justice, liberation, and belonging is rooted in thinking culturally, not strategically.