Contact Us
For more information about this program, contact Dina Shek at (808) 956-5577 or by email.
Medical Legal Partnership for Children in Hawai‘i
OVERVIEW
The Medical-Legal Partnership for Children in Hawai‘i (MLPC) is a unique collaboration between the William S. Richardson School of Law and Kōkua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services (KKV), a community health center. MLPC addresses and improves the social determinants of health that impact child and family well-being by engaging in “preventive legal care” alongside “preventive health care.” More information about MLPC is available at MLPCHawaii.org.
Legal Advocacy Clinics and Workshops
Since April of 2009, MLPC lawyers, law students, doctors and medical residents have worked together on-site at KKV health center to provide direct legal services to over 500 low-income families in Kalihi Valley. MLPC attorneys and law students often meet with families right in the exam rooms, while children wait for their vaccinations and booster shots. MLPC has reached hundreds more through “Know Your Rights” outreach and educational workshops.
Professional Education and Training
MLPC Hawai‘i engages in systemic advocacy alongside the communities we serve, focusing on advocacy and policy solutions that emerge from the “ground” up. MLPC also hosts numerous professional trainings each year for health professionals, including grand rounds education; law updates for clinical staff; and interdisciplinary engagement for medical students and medical residents. Throughout the year, we train Law School and other graduate students in this model of collaborative services and public health policy engagement.
Joining a National Network
MLPC Hawaiʻi is based on a model developed in 1993 by the Boston Medical Clinic when Dr. Barry Zuckerman hired an attorney to “address the social determinants that negatively impact the health of vulnerable populations.” Today, the MLP model has grown to a national network of over 230 healthcare sites in 34 states. In 2014, MLPC Hawai‘i was honored to receive an “Outstanding MLP Award” by the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership [medical-legalpartnership.org] at the National Summit in Seattle, Washington.
“We are committed to learning as a collaborative enterprise. Our program challenges students to grow intellectually and professionally. Faculty members engage with students as partners as well as serving as sources of knowledge.”
Camille A. Nelson, Dean and Professor of Law