President's Message - Summer 2020

NYACP President’s Message...

 
Andrea Vacca | President

Dear Members,

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” 
Margaret Mead.

I often think of this quote when I think about the commitment that we share, as collaborative divorce professionals, to change how couples divorce and how their children experience that transition. This seemingly small act can have ripple effects that expand from the immediate family we’re helping, out to their extended family, and across generations. We can change the lives of so many people when we help our clients divorce in a way that helps them to maintain a sense of family.

But what families are we helping? When you look at the majority of your collaborative divorce clients, what are their economic circumstances? What is their skin color? How do they identify sexually? Chances are, most of us will answer those questions: Upper middle class to very wealthy. White. Straight.

Returning member Jessica Rothberg writes a powerful letter in this newsletter asking NYACP to look at the roster of our members and encourages us to bring more diversity into our organization. This is an important observation that needs to be addressed. This is the time of year when we start encouraging our members to let us know about matrimonial attorneys, mental health professionals and divorce financial professionals in their networks who may be interested in getting collaborative training and becoming a member of our organization. NYACP will not be offering our own live training this year, because of Covid-19, but we can let potential members know about virtual trainings that are being put on by members of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. I ask you all to think as broadly as possible as you look at your networks for other professionals who might be interested in doing this work.

We also need to find a way to offer the collaborative divorce process to families with more modest socio-economic backgrounds. Brian Galbraith’s webinar on the Streamlined Collaborative Process has inspired a group of our members to begin working on a way to bring this flat-fee process to our organization. I’m so excited thinking about how many more families we will be able to help when this becomes a reality.

How else can we expand the diversity among our membership and our individual clients? Please share your ideas with Abby Curro or any of our officers and board members. Introduce us to other organizations that you think we can partner with to bring this powerful divorce process to a wider diversity of families. This is how we can truly change the world.

 

Sincerely,

Andrea Vacca
NYACP President