Read the latest news about the Child Health Advocacy Program on the CHAP News page.

The Child Health Advocacy Program (CHAP) at the University of Virginia is a holistic medical legal collaboration of the University of Virginia Children's Hospital, the University of Virginia School of Law, and the Legal Aid Justice Center.  CHAP is designed to improve the health and welfare of families with children who receive their health care at the University of Virginia's Children's Hospital.  In January 2009, Carolyn Pointer became the new CHAP attorney at Legal Aid.  Read more.

The program received an award of $125,000 from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, which enabled CHAP to hire a full-time program attorney to work on-site at the UVA Children's Hospital and thus improve family access to this important program.  Our program attorney provides training sessions for medical staff on legal issues that affect family and child health. 

The Child Health Advocacy Program provides the following services:

• Volunteers from the Legal Aid Justice Center are available to help families with a variety of legal problems that affect their health and well-being. Any health care provider or social worker can make a referral.  
• Consultation, training and resources are available for health care providers and staff.
• A Virginia Guide to Program Development is available for other programs interested in starting a Child Health Advocacy Program and the Child Health Advocacy Program team members are also available to provide training sessions to other sites who want to develop a program and become part of a statewide network.  Call 434-924-9130 for more information. 
• Program evaluation and patient-family satisfaction tools are presently under development.