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Guardian ad Litem program looking for volunteers
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| George Magee (from left) and his wife Paula, Leo Gielas and Deborah Hall are four of 23 court appointed Guardian ad Litem volunteers that serve 218 children in Columbia County. The volunteers also cover Dixie, Hamilton, Suwannee, Lafayette, Madison and Taylor Counties. ‘We’re like a second set of eyes for the protection of these children,’ said Hall, who has been a Guardian ad Litem for 10 years. JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter |
Local agency serves 215 children in Columbia County.
By TONY BRITT
tbritt@lakecityreporter.com
For some children, spending quality time with Mom or Dad is as easy as asking a question — “Wanna play catch?”
However, for children living in dependency (foster) care due to a parent’s drug, alcohol or chemical dependency rehabilitation, there aren’t many opportunities to laugh and play when both parents are gone.
Guardian ad Litem program supervisor Sandy Tice works with children who live with these circumstances each day and noted the number of children in dependency care is increasing as Columbia County continues to get larger. The local Guardian ad Litem program is serving 215 children through 133 cases in the Columbia County area.
In the Third Judicial Circuit, the Guardian ad Litem is working with 548 children on 337 cases.
The children are entered into dependency care because they’ve witnessed domestic violence between their parents, their parents may have been involved with substance abuse or alcohol or there may have been some type of physical or sexual abuse to the child.
“The child, to me, is the only victim in this whole situation, because the parents, being adults, can make their decisions,” Tice said. “The child is the victim, but yet they’re the ones removed from their homes and placed with strangers, many times separated from brothers and sisters and the schools they attend.”
The Guardian ad Litem program has advocates who work to make sure these children don’t grow up to be statistics of the system. Advocates are court-appointed special advocates from the community that volunteer to speak for a child in dependency/foster care.
“Sometimes it can take just that one person giving just a little bit,” Tice said. “It only takes four hours a month to be a Guardian ad Litem advocate; four hours that can make a difference for a child.
“We make sure that their educational issues are being meet, their safety needs are being meet and also make sure they’re being heard in court,” Tice said, noting they want the issues to be handled as quickly as possible to find permanency for the child. “Foster care should be the last resort for any child.”
The Columbia County Guardian ad Litem program has 23 volunteers.
“We’d like to see that tripled,” Tice said. “I’d like to see every child that we have, have a friend.”
The Guardian ad Litem program will host an open house ceremony from 10 a.m. to
4 p.m. Thursday at its Lake City office, 406 NE Lake DeSoto Circle. Advocates will give tours of the facility as well as explain the services they provide.
Tice began working with the program more than eight years ago as a volunteer.
“I still have such a passion for this program, not only because of what I’ve seen that we can do for the children, but because I’ve seen what it can do for the volunteers,” she said. “In going out and working with these kids, and meeting these kids again after you’ve worked with them, and you know they’re going to college and you get to go watch them graduate, I don’t know who gets the most enjoyment out of that, us or them — to know that they remember us in such a way that we made a difference in their lives.”
The Guardian ad Litem is a state, non-profit program. Some of the agency’s staff members are state employees, while others are hired by the non profit agency (Voices For Children) and are agency volunteers.
The agency is governed by a 10-member executive board. The executive director, Debbie Kinsey, has been with the program for more than 20 years and assisted in starting the program along with Judge Leandra G. Johnson and several other local residents.
The local Guardian ad Litem program, which serves the Third Judicial Circuit, is looking for more volunteers to help with children who need advocates.
“When we become involved, most of the child’s (physical injuries) are healed, but it’s their heart that’s still damaged, because nobody has cared enough to step-up and help,” she said. “I know there is a lot of good people in this community, and I think we just need to get more awareness out there of how they can step-up. They could give two or three hours a month and they can help one of these children.”
However, for children living in dependency (foster) care due to a parent’s drug, alcohol or chemical dependency rehabilitation, there aren’t many opportunities to laugh and play when both parents are gone.
Guardian ad Litem program supervisor Sandy Tice works with children who live with these circumstances each day and noted the number of children in dependency care is increasing as Columbia County continues to get larger. The local Guardian ad Litem program is serving 215 children through 133 cases in the Columbia County area.
In the Third Judicial Circuit, the Guardian ad Litem is working with 548 children on 337 cases.
The children are entered into dependency care because they’ve witnessed domestic violence between their parents, their parents may have been involved with substance abuse or alcohol or there may have been some type of physical or sexual abuse to the child.
“The child, to me, is the only victim in this whole situation, because the parents, being adults, can make their decisions,” Tice said. “The child is the victim, but yet they’re the ones removed from their homes and placed with strangers, many times separated from brothers and sisters and the schools they attend.”
The Guardian ad Litem program has advocates who work to make sure these children don’t grow up to be statistics of the system. Advocates are court-appointed special advocates from the community that volunteer to speak for a child in dependency/foster care.
“Sometimes it can take just that one person giving just a little bit,” Tice said. “It only takes four hours a month to be a Guardian ad Litem advocate; four hours that can make a difference for a child.
“We make sure that their educational issues are being meet, their safety needs are being meet and also make sure they’re being heard in court,” Tice said, noting they want the issues to be handled as quickly as possible to find permanency for the child. “Foster care should be the last resort for any child.”
The Columbia County Guardian ad Litem program has 23 volunteers.
“We’d like to see that tripled,” Tice said. “I’d like to see every child that we have, have a friend.”
The Guardian ad Litem program will host an open house ceremony from 10 a.m. to
4 p.m. Thursday at its Lake City office, 406 NE Lake DeSoto Circle. Advocates will give tours of the facility as well as explain the services they provide.
Tice began working with the program more than eight years ago as a volunteer.
“I still have such a passion for this program, not only because of what I’ve seen that we can do for the children, but because I’ve seen what it can do for the volunteers,” she said. “In going out and working with these kids, and meeting these kids again after you’ve worked with them, and you know they’re going to college and you get to go watch them graduate, I don’t know who gets the most enjoyment out of that, us or them — to know that they remember us in such a way that we made a difference in their lives.”
The Guardian ad Litem is a state, non-profit program. Some of the agency’s staff members are state employees, while others are hired by the non profit agency (Voices For Children) and are agency volunteers.
The agency is governed by a 10-member executive board. The executive director, Debbie Kinsey, has been with the program for more than 20 years and assisted in starting the program along with Judge Leandra G. Johnson and several other local residents.
The local Guardian ad Litem program, which serves the Third Judicial Circuit, is looking for more volunteers to help with children who need advocates.
“When we become involved, most of the child’s (physical injuries) are healed, but it’s their heart that’s still damaged, because nobody has cared enough to step-up and help,” she said. “I know there is a lot of good people in this community, and I think we just need to get more awareness out there of how they can step-up. They could give two or three hours a month and they can help one of these children.”
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