Over 25 years ago, the Center for Family Representation (CFR) introduced a groundbreaking model for family defense proven to keep more families together and reduce the time children spent in the foster system. Today, that model continues to set the standard for public defense across the nation.
While its defense work will always be core to its mission, CFR’s work has grown significantly in recent years. To reflect its vision for a more abundant future for families, the CFR team partnered with Constructive to develop a brand and website that positioned CFR as more than just a defender.
For decades, Black and Brown families in New York City have been harmed by overpolicing and significantly higher rates of family separation through the child welfare system—or what the Center for Family Representation (CFR) calls the family policing system. To reduce harm, CFR’s groundbreaking model is designed so that every client receives an attorney, social worker, and the support of a parent advocate who has been through the system themselves.
This team-based model is intrinsic to CFR, and informed all of our strategic decision-making for the brand, including our discovery process. We engaged those closest to this work, from surveying CFR staff and parent advocates, to interviewing data experts and leaders within the larger movement. This process revealed many key insights, including a real need to speak to the realities of the system in order to drive change, clearly communicate CFR’s expanded roles, and keep community at the heart of all that CFR says and does.
CFR’s redesigned visual identity system needed to communicate the gravity of the harm perpetuated within the family policing system while still feeling approachable to parents in crisis. To accomplish this, we moved away from the traditional legal blue to a more expansive and expressive color palette that embodies the warmth of the CFR team. We carefully selected typography for accessibility, communicating CFR’s expertise and credibility through bold type.
The logo redesign was one of the most important changes made to CFR’s brand. Keeping community and people at the heart of the brand and logo, we used interlocking forms to represent both family bonds and CFR’s three-pronged interdisciplinary model. Combined, CFR’s new design system visually differentiates the organization from other family defenders and communicates a powerful message by prioritizing building trust and engagement with potential clients and community members through warm, people-centered design choices.
Working closely with the CFR team through discovery and strategy, it became very clear that there was a core belief that united all of its staff and stakeholders: Families Belong Together. This idea showed up repeatedly in interviews, surveys, and conversations with CFR’s team and other leaders within the larger movement.
Moving into messaging, this simple yet powerful phrase became central to our communications, eventually becoming CFR’s tagline. As we developed messaging that illustrated what it often looks like when the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) interacts with a family, we kept going back to this universal truth and reiterating that as long as Black and Brown parents are put in a position where they must fight for their children, CFR will be there too, fighting by their side.
Most parents will meet CFR on the worst day of their lives. In many cases, they may have had their children taken away from them or have been threatened with family separation. In moments of crisis like this, it was incredibly important that we designed the CFR website so that it was as easy as possible for parents to get help, fast.
We designed a clear pathway for parents in crisis to immediately go from the Homepage to Get Help, which would direct them to a Know Your Rights page if they had been contacted by ACS, or a Service page. On Know Your Rights, parents can learn more about ACS, understand their rights, and find information on who to contact for help (if not CFR), depending on their zip code. These pathways provide actionable, community-based resources to potential clients and families in crisis, building trust with users even if CFR can’t become their public defender.
We brought the CFR brand to life online through real photographs of clients and the CFR team, warm colors, and interlocking shapes. Storytelling balances client testimonials while still educating around the family policing system and providing easy access to actionable community resources and ways to get involved.
Historically, the CFR team struggled with how to effectively communicate its breadth of services. We improved the positioning of CFR’s services, highlighting Family Defense and Youth Defense as its main services, with additional holistic services being available to clients under each umbrella. This structure is designed to still encompass the incredible work CFR does to support families across every facet of the system—without confusing potential clients who think they would be able to access only Criminal Defense services, for example.
In addition to clarifying its services, the website effectively leads with CFR’s purpose and positioning as more than just a defender. Users who come to the homepage will immediately understand the main actions CFR takes within its three focus areas: defense, advocacy, and community engagement.
Website copywriting played a critical role in bringing CFR’s new brand strategy and messaging to life. Written with families in crisis and other advocates in mind, CFR’s website copy prioritizes clarity and plain language that clearly speaks to the reality of family policing, CFR’s deeply-held beliefs, and its vision for change in the world.
Featuring photographs of real clients was one of the most important strategic shifts to have CFR live up to its role as a community-based defender and advocate. With visual guidance from our team, the CFR team held a photoshoot before the website launch to take updated photos of clients and the team working across the four boroughs it serves in New York City.
In addition to updated photography, the CFR team also recorded new testimonials from clients. Including the real stories, voices, and faces of families was vital to CFR’s updated brand and content strategy, helping the organization build trust and keep client voices centered in all that it says and does.
“The Center for Family Representation defends the rights of families in NYC and advocates for policies that reduce harm to Black and Brown communities. Constructive partnered with our leadership on a year-long strategic rebranding that transformed how we communicate about our work, our branding, and our website. Their team was collaborative, responsive, and professional throughout—ensuring that everything we created felt just right. As result, our message is clear and the way that our brand shows up truly represent our organization and the work we do for low-income NYC families.”
Diana Denza, Communications Director, Center for Family Representation
