Who it helps: Abused and abandoned children caught up in the Hillsborough County legal system.
Where to give: www.voicesforchildren.info, or send donations to P.O. Box 2694, Tampa, FL 33601.
The problem is serious: More than 4,700 kids are caught somewhere in the Hillsborough court system, and, as of now, only 309 independent advisors, aka Guardian ad Litems, are looking out for them.
After a kid is abused or neglected, she becomes a case number in the courts. Every other party — the parents, the state — has a lawyer working in her interest. "But the kid doesn't have anyone," says Guardian ad Litem Office assistant director Suzanne Parker.
So Guardians, who are volunteers, pick up the slack. They talk to the kid's teacher, to the pediatrician. They follow the court proceedings and speak for the child when the judge needs an objective opinion. Parker says it can be as small as "Hey, Jimmy needs a pair of glasses," or as vital as suggesting that the parents' rights be revoked.
As of now, the Guardian office, which is state-funded and not allowed to take outside donations, covers about 40 percent of the cases in Hillsborough County. Voices for Children, a non-profit originally founded 20 years ago by a small group of Guardians, hopes to push that number to 100 percent by 2010.
Voices for Children (VOC) supports the Guardian ad Litem office on two fronts. They fundraise: VOC-procured grants have led to two staff advocate positions, one of which covers over 50 cases. They plug private donations into the state office — often times it's VOC who covers Jimmy's glasses. And they support the Guardians with gas cards and other incentives that make doing the work a bit easier.
Just as important, VOC recruits Guardian ad Litems for the program. You don't have to be an attorney to be a Guardian. Complete the 30-hour training and you're ready to go. Most guardians handle two cases, which take a minimum of an hour per month.
"A lot of people say: 'Oh, I can't be a Guardian, I'd get too emotional," says Allison Raver, a Guardian for the last three years and a VOC Board member. "But that's exactly what its about. There's just a great feeling of reward knowing that you're improving a bad situation in a child's life."
VOC's executive director Lisa Semeyn says that it will take 1,200 guardians overall to meet the 100 percent coverage goal. "The number of kids going into the system is growing faster than the number of Guardians," she says. And to change that direction, VOC and the Guardian ad Litem office need as many volunteers as they can get.
This article appears in Nov 16-23, 2005.