Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Charlene Boulais of Los Gatos sits in the children's playroom at the Child Advocates office in San Jose. She has worked with eight children through the program.
Being There
Thanks to Child Advocates, abandoned, abused and neglected kids have someone in their corner
By Kara Chalmers
It is a routine morning in the Hon. Leonard P. Edwards's courtroom. Attorneys and social workers rush in and out the swinging double doors, and the court assistant calls the names of families--26 in all--that have somehow become entangled in the overburdened Santa Clara County juvenile dependency system.
This brightly lit courtroom features flowers on one desk, posters of animals on the walls and a pile of stuffed animals in one corner. Young children wander over to the pile during court proceedings and choose a toy to take with them when they return to their homes, shelters or foster families.
In this courtroom, children may sit on their parents' laps, if they wish. Sometimes, this is the only time that parents, in jail uniforms, handcuffs and sometimes shackles, see their children. Three Kleenex boxes--one where the children sit and two more in the parents' section--rest on the semicircle-shaped table that faces the bench.
Edwards keeps the mood light, bantering with his colleagues during the short breaks and joking with the children who come in. He says "Hello" or "Buenos días" to everyone. During his thorough explanations of what is happening and why, Edwards never fails to treat each parent with the utmost respect and kindness, even while uttering phrases like "serious emotional damage" and "have failed to protect the child." Edwards not only looks out for the children in his court, but also tries hard to preserve their families.
"Bye, Judge Edwards. Have a good day," says one young girl, as she swings through the double doors with a gift certificate for CDs, a reward from Edwards for doing well in school.
And so another morning ends, but the whole dependency process seems never-ending at times for all involved. In Santa Clara and San Mateo counties combined, some 4,500 children, ranging from infancy to 18 years old, are dependents of the court. In Santa Clara County alone, about 3,600 kids are dependents of the court. The fastest-growing segment is children under 6.
Edwards and two court commissioners, Kristine McCarthy and Katherine Lucero, hear all the cases. Edwards alone hears some 125 to 150 children's cases each week. Social workers and attorneys handle tons of children's cases at once and sometimes meet with each child for as little as a half-hour once a month.
Child Advocates helps to ease this burden. In court, an advocate sits with a child, and Edwards calls on him or her right away to tell him how the child is doing. Edwards tends to agree with the Child Advocates and follow their suggestions, and it seems they have a lot of power in his court. In many cases, they know the child's needs better than anyone.
Child Advocates is a nonprofit organization whose volunteers shepherd abused, neglected or abandoned children, who, by no fault of their own, are in the dependency system. Unlike attorneys and social workers, most advocates work with one child at a time.
Child Advocates are appointed by a judge to speak up for the child in court. They inform the court of the child's wishes and make recommendations about where and with whom the child should be. They aim to provide the children with a safe, permanent home as quickly as possible, which could mean reuniting them with their families or recommending adoption.
Attorney Bill Corwin was so committed to the Child Advocates program that he became its executive director.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Advocates must be 21 years old. There are no other prerequisites; volunteers come in all ages and with very different backgrounds. But Saratoga advocate Carol Quakenbush says all advocates should be caring individuals who are willing to make a commitment to a child.
"There is no special need or background," she says. "You don't have to be a mother. You don't have to be a father."
Others in the dependency system say that potential advocates should be patient, nonjudgmental and good listeners. "If you don't like children, don't apply," Edwards says.
Edwards helped found Child Advocates after he was assigned as the supervising judge of Juvenile Court for Santa Clara County in 1985. Child Advocates is an affiliate of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), which has programs in 49 states. Child Advocates was expanded to San Mateo County in 1990.
Last year, about 1,000 children in the system had advocates; 850 of them were in Santa Clara County. Even though Child Advocates had more than 650 volunteers last year--more than any other CASA program in the country--more than 300 children remain on the waiting list, says Bill Corwin of Saratoga, who is executive director of Child Advocates.
Referrals are generally the victims of the most severe physical or sexual abuse or neglect. They may be babies who are born with drug or alcohol dependencies or children whose parents are incarcerated. Referrals come from attorneys, judges, social workers, teachers and parents. Sometimes children send letters requesting an advocate. Advocates can choose the gender, age range and geographic location of their child. Children are never assigned; a supervisor chooses about three case files for the advocate to read, and the advocate selects one.
Corwin tells of a drawing he received recently from a boy living in a group home who drew a picture of himself on a bike with a pizza box. His friends had advocates, and he really wanted one. Another letter reads, "Dear Advocate, I hope you get my résumé because I need someone to be there for me."
"By and large, the kids that we work with are really great kids," Corwin says. "The resiliency of these kids is inspiring."
For many children in the system, there is a high turnover rate of the adults in their lives. From social workers to foster parents to teachers, therapists and even parents, children in the system are constantly being shifted from place to place. Their advocate may be their only anchor, the only person who provides any consistency in their tumultuous lives. As advocate Carol Levitt of Saratoga found out about the 12-year-old boy she has worked with for the past four years, "My phone number was the only phone number he had memorized. He didn't know his own phone number to call his foster mother." That is why advocates are asked to make an 18-month commitment, Corwin says, which is also the time allotted to parents to shape up.
The Hon. Leonard Edwards, supervising judge of the Juvenile Court, keeps stuffed animals outside his office for youngsters to take home with them after a hearing.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
When advocate Charlene Boulais of Los Gatos sifted through her supervisor-chosen case files, she noticed one in particular. The young girl had asked for an advocate who liked ice cream.
"I don't even like ice cream," Boulais says, "But I had to meet this girl."
Boulais has worked with eight children, some whose stories were splayed across the pages of newspapers. One child constantly made her promise not to tell anyone anything about himself, and other children would go the whole day without asking for food or water because no one had ever responded to their hunger before.
Unlike the 60 percent of advocates who hold down full-time jobs, Boulais, who was a middle-school teacher until 1984, does not work outside of being an advocate and running some of the programs at the office. Her husband, Peter, is an advocate, too.
"My most treasured moments in the past eight years have been while working with these children," she says.
Child Advocates can affect a child's life in many ways and really be a part of who that child becomes, Boulais says. In fact, some attorneys, including Corwin, joined the organization because they felt that as advocates they would have more of an impact on children than they could as attorneys. Boulais was the one who realized that the 8-year-old boy she once worked with could not read--even his teacher didn't know. But Boulais says that the little things advocates do seem to be the biggest deal to the children, like showing up on time to meet them.
Once Boulais surprised her advocate child by bringing cookies to his school for his birthday. The boy was living in a shelter at the time and did not have anyone to make him birthday treats for school the way other children did.
"He was so excited," Boulais says. "This was his day. This had never happened before, nobody ever did this for him before. It was such a small thing." The boy asked her how she knew it was his birthday, over and over. She says that each child she has worked with has saved every postcard she ever sent them.
"I think I get more out of it than the kids do," she says.
That advocates get more than they give is a sentiment echoed by many of them, and Edwards agrees. "They are the nicest group of people I've ever worked with," he says. "They're totally committed to the kids."
Kathryn Williams of Saratoga is a volunteer supervisor and has three advocate children, all under 3 years old. Two of them are siblings. She says this is more than the usual caseload for advocates, and the time she spends with the children is probably more than usual as well. Williams worked in a pediatric medical clinic for 10 years, but for the last five years, she's devoted herself to her passions--child advocacy and domestic-violence education. She is a domestic-violence educator with WATCH, which she says led her to Child Advocates. Williams, who was battered in her first marriage, says that many of the children in the dependency system come from homes where they experienced domestic violence. She says she wants to show kids that there are adults out there who won't disappoint them.
"If somebody is looking for an opportunity to really have impact, to devote their time to something that really has meaning, this is the place, this is the opportunity," Williams says of Child Advocates.
Like Boulais, Williams stresses that just spending time with the advocate child doing normal everyday chores, outdoors or in the community, is more than enough for these children, who have been so sheltered and need to be exposed to the world. She brings them to the park, the library, museums, community events, McDonald's and the grocery store.
"It doesn't have to be a trip to Great America every week," Williams says, adding that sometimes the children, especially the young ones, just need to be held and loved.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Kathryn Williams spends time with the 2-year-old child assigned to her through the Child Advocates program.
According to Corwin, most advocates spend about 10-14 hours per month on a case. Some spend less, especially if the child has to move away. The time includes visiting with the child, speaking with all the adults in the child's life and meeting with supervisors at the Child Advocates office.
Advocates are also required to attend 25 hours of training covering topics such as the dynamics of abuse and neglect, substance abuse, the role of the advocates and other players and tips on how to work with children. Williams, who says she used to look forward to each challenging and informative training session when she started, now speaks on domestic violence for the new advocates.
Williams says that advocates can turn to experts on staff for legal advice, information on school systems and ideas of what to do for fun with the children, so they always feel very supported. Child Advocates also accepts volunteers who work on projects that are less time-intensive and less emotionally charged, such as fundraising, providing office support, and helping to plan and run kids' activities at the office.
Boulais says one question frequently asked by potential advocates is how not to get to upset with the child's parents. She says that, although some cases do break her heart, she knows that by being an advocate, she has the power to truly help the child. She adds that no matter what they have been through, most children want to return to their parents, and it is important for advocates to let children know it is OK to still love their parents.
"Good people can still have bad behavior, and that has helped me in so many situations," Boulais says. "And they get that, they can understand that, even the young ones. They like that because it still allows them to love their parents and believe that their parents love them."
She mentions one boy who still clings to the one good memory he has of his mother--they once went to the movies together and had popcorn. The boy and Boulais speak of it still, and the boy does not see his mother at all now.
The first time Corwin became an advocate, for two little girls, he also got to know the girls' father. Corwin encouraged him to attend 12-step meetings and listened when he needed to talk to someone. The girls were in a foster home, but eventually ended up with their father.
As an advocate and director, Corwin says he has been very rewarded because, on a daily basis, he sees the impact that advocates have on so many children.
"It may be huge things like playing a critical role in helping a child return to their family and thrive there," Corwin says. "But there are literally thousands of small things that advocates aren't even aware of that they bring to kids."
Today, hundreds of children still wait for advocates. One boy enjoys listening to oldies and watching cartoons. One girl wants someone to "hang out with." Others want help with sports or in school. Some "love cookies and cake." Most kids just want someone who will pay attention to them.
The monthly orientation meetings at the Child Advocates office are a non-binding way to get a sense of what it takes to be an advocate. The next meeting is Feb. 9 at 115 E. Gish Road, Suite 252, in San Jose. Call the office at 408.436.6450 for more information, or visit the website at www.childadv.org.
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