The Paul Doyle Children’s Advocacy Award honors Paul C. Doyle, Founding Director of The Florida Bar Foundation’s (now FFLA) Legal Assistance for the Poor and Law Student Assistance Grant Programs (1991 to 2013) in recognition of his commitment to high-quality legal representation of Florida’s low-income children; for encouraging grantee programs to collaborate across geographic regions in order to bring the benefit of legal advocacy to low-income children regardless of their county of residence; for his strong and consistent support of Legal Assistance for the Poor and Law Student Assistance grantees; and for a career dedicated to promoting high-quality legal representation of the poor.
The award recognizes and encourages systemic legal advocacy on behalf of low-income children. The award is presented once every two years at our Annual Award Ceremony during The Florida Bar Annual Convention.
| Year | Honoree | Project |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Seminole County Bar Association Legal Aid Society | The Foster Youth Disability Advocacy Project ensures that foster youth with developmental disabilities receive the government benefits to which they are entitled. Medicaid Home and Community Based Services benefits require a detailed application process and, in event of denial, a complicated appellate process before the benefits can be awarded. |
| 2023 | Florida Health Justice Project (First Runner-up) | The Medicaid Aging Out Project successfully challenged an unadopted rule that illegally narrowed the pool of medically fragile children eligible for automatic enrollment into a Medicaid Waiver program. Without automatic enrollment, these children were forced onto a waitlist of 55,000 people. The rule language was amended and corrective action was undertaken to implement the change. |
| 2023 | Americans for Immigrant Justice (Second Runner-up) | The Lucha Program protects survivors of violence and their children by helping them achieve full residency, reunification with family members, and the opportunity to integrate and contribute to the community in which they live. |
| 2021 | CABA Pro Bono Legal Services | Immigrant Children’s Program |
| 2021 | First Runner-up: Florida State University College of Law | Human Exploitation and Trafficking Project (HELP) |
| 2021 | Second Runner-up: Florida Legal Services | Ending Juvenile Solitary Confinement in Florida |
| 2019 | Americans for Immigrant Justice | Reunification of children separated from parents at the border |
| 2019 | First Runner-Up: FSU College of Law Public Interest Law Center Children’s Advocacy Clinic | Human Exploitation and Trafficking Project (HELP) |
| 2019 | Second Runner-Up: University of Miami School of Law Children and Youth Clinic | Florida Supreme Court Amicus advocacy for immigrant children |
| 2017 | Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association and pro bono attorney Jamie Billotte Moses | The Child’s Best Hope Act: Adoption Intervention |
| 2017 | First Runner-Up: Florida’s Children First | Improve access to higher education for former foster youth |
| 2017 | Second Runner-Up: Florida Legal Services and Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County | Florida KidCare coverage for lawfully residing immigrant children |
| 2015 | Florida’s Children First | Counsel for Dependent Children with Special Needs Project |
| 2015 | First Runner-up: Gulfcoast Legal Services | Children’s Immigration Legal Defense Project |
| 2015 | Second Runner-Up: Florida’s Children First and Florida Legal Services | Medicaid to Age 26 for Former Foster Youth Project |
| 2013 | Florida Legal Services Inc., Legal Services of Greater Miami Inc. and pro bono attorney Neil Kodsi | Children’s Autism Treatment Project |
| 2013 | First Runner-Up: Florida Legal Services | Deinstitutionalizing Florida’s Children Project |
| 2013 | Second Runner-Up: Americans for Immigrant Justice | Children’s Legal Project |
