Maria Griglio

Maria Griglio has been a leading force in not only changing the perspective on child sex trafficking victims, but in creating a safe space for advocating for the rights and well-being of these children in Los Angeles County. As a founding member and lead county counsel in the Dedication to Restoration through Empowerment, Advocacy, and Mentoring (DREAM) Court, Maria represents the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and has helped to establish a collaborative courtroom dedicated to addressing the unique legal and support needs of children entering the legal system as commercial sexually exploited children (CSEC).

From her roots in metropolitan Detroit, Maria’s commitment to child advocacy was inspired by her mother, a social rights activist turned social worker and therapist, who focused on child and family welfare. Like her mother, Maria trained as a social worker, but came to understand that she could increase her influence and impact on children and family issues as a lawyer. During law school in Los Angeles, Maria concentrated her studies on courses in child welfare and abuse and neglect, and planned her internships and volunteer work around issues related to child welfare. This included volunteering at the ACLU, Public Counsel, and Mental Health Advocacy Services.

During her tenure as a children’s attorney with Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles, Maria worked closely with the County Counsel’s office. She observed that when children’s lawyers joined the County Counsel’s office, they brought a fresh wave of compassion and a well-rounded perspective to their cases. After 10 years with the law center, Maria joined the Los Angeles County Counsel’s Dependency Division where she is now senior deputy county counsel. It was in this capacity that Maria became involved in the movement that led to the DREAM Court.

The DREAM Court developed out of the legal and social reforms happening across the state in the mid-2010s. The district attorney’s office led the way by creating the First Step Diversion Program, a pre filing program that treated these youth as victims of sex crimes rather than as criminals or delinquents. Maria was on the planning committee that developed the protocol in which the youth were encouraged to attend school and were provided with advocates and trauma-informed support services. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors also changed how they thought about child sex crime victims by initiating new policies and making a public declaration that “there is no such thing as a child prostitute.” Following that lead, the state of California then passed a law that prohibited minors from being arrested for solicitation and allowed for CSECs to become part of the child welfare system as a victim of sexual exploitation. As a result of these changes, CSECs were no longer being arrested and, therefore, weren't being detained in juvenile detention facilities. DCFS then started filing petitions to bring these youth into the dependency system and provide child welfare services to them. This prompted the opening of DREAM which was a courtroom dedicated to hearing these case.

DREAM Court is a child-based, friendly, and collaborative atmosphere in a specialized courtroom which is centered on serving all of the child’s needs. All staff here have been specially trained to work with CSECs, from the bailiff to the court reporter, and facility dogs are even brought in to sit with the children as their cases are heard. To deliver wraparound support, there are multidisciplinary agency meetings that ensure services are coordinated for each child and their situation is reviewed at least every six weeks. Additionally, the court manages a fund to pay for things the kids might want, like getting their hair done for prom or taking dance lessons—whatever they need to feel secure and heard so they can begin to address their trauma. Ultimately, the goal of the court is to keep families together and deliver support services through the home, and there are resources for parents of CSECs to train them on how to keep their kids safe and prevent them from being trafficked again.

Maria and her colleagues have shared their best practices from the DREAM Court with their peers across the country. One of the smallest but most challenging elements that trainees contend with is modifying their language to be trauma-informed, such as avoiding labels in favor of changeable descriptors (i.e., "the child is a victim of exploitation" rather than "the child is a prostitute”). Maria initially met resistance from professionals who expressed concern that without the option to detain these youth, there would be no means to protect them from their traffickers. Maria’s own diverse professional experience has helped her bridge the divide with social workers, probation officers, law enforcement, and her own colleagues as they grapple with this dynamic shift in perspective.

While there are some great successes coming out of this young court, such as kids now thriving in college, there have also been some tough situations. The team focuses on celebrating the small wins, like when a youth stays in their placement for a whole week rather than returning to their trafficker. Though the pandemic has been tough on everyone involved and everything is done through virtual meetings, DREAM Court is continuing their mission for CSEC's in Los Angeles.

Maria’s advice for lawyers who may want to pursue a career in children’s advocacy is to remember that children are vulnerable ever changing human beings, and even though she represents a county agency, there is still room for compassion and empathy when working on her cases. Finally: “Think outside the box, it’s much broader than the four corners of the document when working with children.”

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