Advokids Receives Prestigious Hennenhoefer Grant
The purpose of the AAML Foundation is to advance one of the AAML’s most important goals: the protection of children and families. The Jim and Lea Hennenhoefer Grant, one of four prestigious named grants awarded annually by the AAML Foundation, is specifically reserved for organizations that demonstrate or provide an innovative approach to, or unique services for, families in need. The 2025-2026 recipient of the Jim and Lea Hennenhoefer Grant is Advokids, based in Corte Madera, CA.
Advokids was founded in 1993 by three child welfare attorneys and a child psychologist in response to the alarming number of children entering foster care, experiencing multiple placements and lingering in temporary care, often for years. Advokids has grown steadily over the decades but has remained steadfastly devoted to its mission to protect the rights of every child in foster care in California to safety, security and a permanent home. The objectives of Advokids are to decrease separation and loss in family and caregiving relationships; see fewer placement disruptions for children in foster care; increase visitation between children and caregiving relatives; see fewer delays to permanency, including reunification with birth family, guardianship and adoption; and see less trauma and stress while children are in foster care.
To achieve the aforementioned objectives, Advokids provides statewide direct legal services, a comprehensive online child welfare legal library, a self-help center and legal seminars to all sectors of the Los Angeles community who engage with foster children and youth. These free legal services operate alongside their Online Legal Library & Self-Help Center to provide legal and trauma-informed legal educational resources, tools and information to the community and child welfare professionals. Advokids collects extensive data from their service clients and maintains a sophisticated database that allows them to analyze trends and patterns every week to determine when a local system has a policy or practice that harms children. They use this database to find the appropriate advocacy response, from drawing on relationships with local child welfare leadership throughout the state or pursuing litigation when necessary.
The AAML Foundation thanks Advokids for its decades of service to thousands of children caught up in California’s child welfare system. The Foundation congratulates Advokids on its receipt of the 2025-2026 Jim and Lea Hennenhoefer Grant in the amount of $10,000.00.
Finally, the Foundation thanks the hundreds of AAML Fellows who contributed generously to the 2025 Billable Hour Campaign, making this grant and the additional 50 grants possible.
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The AAML Foundation thanks the following donors since the last newsletter for their support and generosity:
In Honor of Natalia Armstrong
Sanford Ain
In Honor of Natalia Armstrong for her service to the AAML Foundation
Gary Rosen
In Honor of Helen Davis for her service to the AAML Foundation
Gary Rosen
In Honor of Larry Moskowitz for his service to the AAML Foundation
Gary Rosen
In Honor of Brian Sobol for his service to the AAML Foundation
Gary Rosen
In Honor of Julie Swain for her service to the AAML Foundation
Gary Rosen
In Honor of Brian Vertz for his service to the AAML Foundation
Gary Rosen
In Honor of Brian Vertz’s Birthday
Morgan Bonekovic
In Honor of Lauren Waddell for her service to the AAML Foundation
Gary Rosen
2025 Billable Hour Club
Bruce E. Cooperman
General Donation
AAML Ohio Chapter