Helping Families Avoid Negative Court Involvement Teach-Out

This course will teach learners how to understand when issues can become legal issues, encourage learners to recognize legal problems early, identify possible “legal soft spots” in their own situations, and act when issues are identified to avoid them escalating. This course will also teach and encourage learners to think preventatively and provide some tools to use with an eye toward preventing future legal issues. Finally, this Teach-out seeks to expand the idea of legal health checks to a community level by encouraging learners to take on the task of informing others of legal soft spots and prevention tools to prevent and mitigate future legal problems. This Teach-out is for anyone in a romantic relationship, co-parenting or parenting relationship, or people who work with families and young and emerging adults. Examples of professionals who may benefit from this course include: teachers, pastors and other church leaders, community organizers, social workers, doctors, nurses, and hairdressers.

• What is Preventative Law?
• This module lays the groundwork for preventive law. You will learn the history of preventive law, what it means, and how it can be applied in the family law context. This module also explains how the Domestic Relations Court system works in the State of Illinois, USA.
• Thinking Preventatively
• In this module, you will learn what it means to think preventively. You will build the skills to think preventively using concrete examples and prompts.
• Applying Preventative Law to Family Law: Anticipatory Planning
• In this module, you will review concrete examples of how to apply preventive law to family law issues for the purpose of preventing or mitigating court involvement for families.