Law firm offers struggling youths the support they need

By Jason Song

Dec. 25, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

It felt like Jenny Rosales had swallowed a quarter.

Rosales, 22, was visiting her grandfather in Mexico City about a month ago when she felt a steady pain in her abdomen. She thought it might be a recurrence of cervical cancer, for which she’d already had three surgeries. Or perhaps the aftereffects of a recent operation to remove a tumor in her abdomen, or a procedure to end an ectopic pregnancy.

Doctors in Mexico diagnosed Rosales with kidney stones and advised her to get surgery immediately, but she didn’t because she was uncomfortable undergoing the procedure there and because she had no insurance and already owed almost $1,000 in medical bills.

So she returned to her home in North Hollywood and has been trying to find medical insurance or a job with benefits.

“I knew I had to take care of it,” she said. “I knew I should get in touch with Mickey.”

“Mickey” is Michelle McKinney, a youth advocate for Public Counsel. McKinney counsels former foster children such as Rosales, helping them get access to benefits and healthcare.

McKinney is one of about six Public Counsel employees in Los Angeles County who work exclusively with youths and young adults, although virtually everyone at the nonprofit handles at least the occasional case involving a young client. The organization assists nearly 1,000 youths and young adults a year, according to Paul Freese, its interim chief executive.

According to its website, Public Counsel, founded in 1970, is a pro bono public interest law firm that serves Southern California with a staff of 33 attorneys and thousands of volunteers. It delivers free legal services to low-income children, families and senior citizens.

The Times Holiday Campaign fund contributed $25,000 to Public Counsel this year.

McKinney specializes in working with those leaving the foster care system as they become adults. About 1,200 people in the county phase out of the foster care system every year and many of them assume that they have no access to benefits. Often they accumulate debt or don’t get insurance, which is sometimes offered through the system.

McKinney is a particularly effective advocate because she was once in foster care herself. “She has enormous credibility with these youth,” Freese said.

McKinney began volunteering with Public Counsel in 2004 when she began studies at Whittier Law School. She eventually took a leave of absence from school to concentrate on her advocacy. “It’s a passion,” she said.

McKinney, who counsels about 300 people a year, has been working with Rosales for nearly six months, since shortly after Rosales had her ectopic pregnancy, a dangerous condition in which the fetus develops outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube, and is advised to be ended. Rosales’ social worker recommended that she contact Public Counsel.

After the surgery, Rosales had accumulated about $1,700 in medical bills. McKinney talked with Rosales’ creditors and came up with a payment plan, lowering her debt to about $1,000.

Rosales also leaned on McKinney for moral support. Rosales, who was born in East L.A., has an older sister and younger brother, but still called McKinney several times a week.

“It’s really helpful for me to talk to her,” Rosales said. “Even if it was just me calling and leaving long voice mail messages, I just felt like there was someone who understood.”

Rosales had hoped her health troubles were over when she quit her job as an administrative assistant at a Banana Republic store. Even though that meant she’d lose her health insurance, Rosales wanted to travel to Mexico to visit her ailing grandfather. Her mother died 10 years ago and her father died in 2001 and “my grandfather’s the last parent figure I have left,” Rosales said.

But after Rosales felt the pain in her abdomen, she returned to Los Angeles and called McKinney, who quickly got her an appointment at a free medical clinic. Doctors diagnosed a minor infection and Rosales is taking antibiotics.

Still, she can’t feel comfortable. She doesn’t have a job or health insurance and is temporarily living with her sister in North Hollywood. McKinney is helping her look for a job.

But the holiday season isn’t the best time to find employment. So Rosales tries not to think about her situation and hopes that she doesn’t feel any twinges or aches.

“Any little thing could be a disaster,” she said.

The annual Holiday Campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which will match donations this year at 50 cents on the dollar.

Donations are tax-deductible. For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make credit card donations, please visit www.latimes.com/. To send checks, use the attached coupon. Please do not send cash. Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Times.

jason.song@latimes.com

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