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Speak Up! News
Speak Up for Kids of the Palm Beaches
www.wflx.com/global/story.asp?s=10182609April 14, 2009 04:26 PM EDT WEST PALM BEACH, FL - In difficult financial times as the unemployment rate steadily increases - (President Obama reporting same in his national economic address April 14, 2009) - domestic violence is on the rise, and with it child abuse and neglect.
Speak Up for Kids of the Palm Beaches Inc. is a new non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to attaining resources and advocacy for the youngest victims of abuse and neglect in our community, the kids in the Juvenile Dependency System. The first line of business with any new organization is a logo - a visual representation of the work at hand. At one of the board's earliest meetings the idea arose to draw from young local talent within the community for the Speak Up for Kids' logo. Dreyfoos School of the Arts was the ideal resource and Digital Arts educator Francisco Carrera, IDSA was willing and eager to meet the challenge alongside his 16 Freshmen art students.
In teams of two, young artists were given parameters into which their design had to fit. - Black & White to be printed clearly on color, Outlined, Easily Scaled Small to Large and Communicates the Mission of the Organization. Each team will present their design at the event prior to LIVE Public, Celebrity Judge and Board of Directors voting. ALL are invited to come view the logo designs and cast their vote this Wednesday evening 5:30 - 7:30pm at the Armory Arts Center 1700 Parker Avenue, West Palm Beach.
150+ attendees expected including Dreyfoos School of the Arts students and families, members of the 15th Judicial Circuit Courts, Guardian Ad Litem volunteer advocates and Speak Up for Kids of the Palm Beaches, Inc friends. The law firm of Steinger, Iscoe & Greene is underwriting the space for the event and prizes for the Winning Logo and Runner-Up Design teams.
Of the 1700 reported cases of abused and neglected children in our community presently 40% (nearly 700 children) are without a GAL or anyone to investigate, understand and speak up for their best interest in the Juvenile Dependency System.
About Speak Up for Kids of the Palm Beaches, Inc.
Speak Up for Kids of the Palm Beaches Inc. is dedicated exclusively to increasing awareness and attaining resources for the Guardian Ad Litem of the 15th Judicial Circuit. GAL trains volunteers to become advocates and speak up in the best interest of the youngest and most innocent victims of abuse and neglect. By supporting GAL in Palm Beach County more staff and thus MANY more children can be helped (1 GAL Staff = 100 Child Cases). Federal and State resources for Guardian Ad Litem have steadily been cut while the number of children entering the Juvenile Dependency System aggressively increases in light of high stress, difficult economic times. To learn more about helping or volunteering, contact Guardian Ad Litem in the Palm Beach County Courthouse at -----561 355-2773 or go to www.galpbc.org.
County's volunteer program to help kids looking for adults 'with a heart'
www.palmbeachpost.com/news/..Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 8:25 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009
WANTED: GALS. Just a few hours each month.
ALSO: A celebrity spokesman.
Both for the "best worst-paying job in the world," as Circuit Judge Ron Alvarez calls it.
GALS are Guardians ad Litem, a fancy-and-tad-daunting name for what is quite a basic job. No specials skills or legal training required. Just a heart for kids, and knack for knowing what is in their best interest.
The county's volunteer Guardian ad Litem program is facing a critical shortage of guardians for abused, neglected and abandoned children. Attorney Vicki Tucci, head of Palm Beach County's program, said recently they have 30 days to find volunteers for hundreds of children.
Or no guardians will be appointed at all.
A guardian is the judge's "eyes and ears," Alvarez said. A volunteer adult whose only job is to advise the court on what is in best interest of the child. Not to provide foster care for the children or mentor them — just to watch over them, an independent eye focused only on their future.
"They visit the homes, are looking, seeing, smelling, things I can never do," Alvarez said.
Alvarez tells of a story of the guardian who visited a child's parents as a part of determining whether the child should be reunited with them. One parent offered the guardian a joint, the other a beer.
"It's information like that which is so valuable to me," Alvarez said.
Tucci said her office is currently appointed in 1,300 cases of children involved in the court system. With recent budget cuts, her staff of 39 was reduced to 24 and now relies on volunteers more than ever before.
And volunteers have been tougher to come by than ever before, perhaps because of the economy, Tucci said.
Michael Bayer, 58, of Lake Clarke Shores, estimates that over the past 10 years he has served as a volunteer guardian for 50 children. One of them was 21-year-old Areanna DeVito of West Palm Beach, who entered the foster care system at age 12.
DeVito figures she had 10 to 12 different case workers over the years, but one consistent advocate: her guardian, Bayer. "He was more like a father figure than anything. If I didn't have him, I don't think I would have stayed sane enough to deal with it all," DeVito said.
Bayer is a retired federal employee who now has his own consulting firm. He serves as a guardian to seven children in the court system, most of them teens. Bayer has one of the heavier caseloads, volunteering up to 55 hours each month.
Over the years, he's been introduced by the teens — embarrassed to reveal at school they are in the foster care system — as an uncle, grandfather or brother.
"You gain a lot of happiness … when you can look at somebody and go 'Wow … maybe I just may have helped their life,' " Bayer said.
Bayer's preference is to volunteer mostly with teens, but children all ages from birth to 18 years old are in need of guardians, in all areas of the county. The program has offices in Delray Beach, Belle Glade and West Palm Beach.
Tucci said they try to match volunteer guardians with their desired age group. And while the children's situations are often heartbreaking, guardians can always decline a case if it is too much for them.
The minimum commitment can be as few as four to six hours a month as a guardian for one child, who must be visited in person each month.
Requirements include completing a 30-hour training course and undergoing background checks. And, of course, having the most basic thing of all: a heart for helping kids.
~susan_spencer_wendel@pbpost.com
