KidSide, Inc.

We help children from families in need, who are in crisis due to high-conflict court cases, receive critical protection, advocacy, and the opportunity to heal by covering the cost of services rendered by outside providers to families in need served by Family Court Services (FCS).

Judges and Magistrates in Miami-Dade County often refer children and families in need of therapeutic intervention and other critical services to FCS, a unit within the Court system that helps these families in-house at no cost to them.  However, many of the services these families require are not available in-house and FCS must refer them to outside providers that do charge a fee.

Families with little or no income cannot afford the fees charged by outside providers and are placed on waiting lists or are often unable to comply with the Orders of Referral and their cases fall through the cracks in the judicial system resulting in the underserved children being the victims of the underfunded court system.

KidSide prevents this from happening.  The goal of KidSide is to ensure that all children, regardless of their economic situation, receive the protection and advocacy they need.  Utilizing referrals from FCS, KidSide pays for the services the most vulnerable children and families in need require.  Without the assistance from KidSide, children can be on the waitlist for months to be reunified with their parents or receive essential mental health services that they need. We are helping reunify families in a timely manner.

The impact of high-conflict court cases, like divorce, domestic violence, or abuse, on children is made much worse due to a lack of support for kids in the legal system. An extended, antagonistic legal dispute can have long-term, negative consequences for the children involved. This dynamic can manifest in poor academic performance and peer relationships, substance abuse, pregnancy, and even suicide. Children from families in-need are considerably more vulnerable as their families cannot access essential support and services to help them cope and begin to heal.

KidSide, is a 501(c)3.