Dorothy M. Wallace COPE South Center Contact: Darlene Bell-Alexander National Bar Association Women’s Lawyers’ Division of Dade County E-mail: dbell.alexander@miami.edu Providing Vital Legal Information to Teenage Parents Project Description: For the past two years, the National Bar Association Women Lawyers’ Division of Dade County [Florida] has sponsored a Teen Parent Empowerment Conference. This mini legal clinic serves the students of COPE South Center, an alternative Dade County Public School for pregnant teens. After listening to an inspirational speech, students are divided into smaller group sessions of 50 minutes each to hear attorneys answer legal questions and talk about their own careers. Sponsoring Entities: Dorothy M. Wallace COPE South Center and the National Bar Association Women Lawyers’ Division of Dade County (NBA/WLD) People Benefiting: 200 students, their parents, and faculty members Best Thing about This Program: “The best thing was having the ability as a group to offer valuable legal advice to the young ladies, mothers, and grandmothers of COPE South, advice they may never have received if it were not for this program,” says Darlene Bell-Alexander, president of NBA/WLD - Dade County. Secret of Success: Early planning, continuity, and the complete participation and support of the attorneys and school administration. How-to Advice: "Stay with the same project and build on it each year. This year we expanded the program to include grandmothers and to allow more time in group sessions. Next year, we would like to hold the Empowerment Conference at a hotel site in order to include the other two COPE schools in the area and to educate the young fathers as well. Be willing to listen to the people who are helping to coordinate the effort in order to make the program the best that it can be." Cost:   $0 - The school principal sought donations from Entenmann’s Bakery for breakfast treats. Sample Programs Home | By Audience | By Location | By Sponsoring Organization