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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Amy Warr, a director of finance at a local company, has also volunteered as a child advocate since July 2000.
Speaking up for the youngsters
Child Advocates gives a voice for children in court system for dependent kids
By Amy Jenkins
There are many cases across the country of children who are taken away from their families because of abuse, neglect or abandonment and are placed into a temporary living situation until a judge decides what is best for them. In Santa Clara and San Mateo counties there are approximately 4,000 children who are dependents of the court and are waiting to be reunited with their families or put up for adoption. In the meantime, these children live in shelters, group homes or foster care.
Child Advocates is a nonprofit organization that matches one of these children with an adult volunteer who acts as a representative in court, a mentor and often the only consistent adult in the child's life. Amy Warr, 43, has been a Sunnyvale resident since 1988 and a Child Advocate since July 2000. The case she works on involves a pre-teenage girl who was placed in foster care because her parents were "struggling with certain things," Warr said. In the dependency court system, the parents are given 18 months to work on parenting skills and regain custody. Otherwise, the court arranges an alternative living situation for them, such as adoption.
Warr says that, over the course of the case as the child's needs have changed, her role as an advocate has also shifted. The amount of time they have spent together has ranged from 10 to 15 hours a week to the five hours, once or twice a week that they spend together now. Warr helps with homework, takes her to plays, shopping, and they hang out together.
Another large responsibility of an advocate is to act as an officer of the court. The advocate writes a two-page report about what has been going on in the child's life and presents it to the court at hearings every six months. The advocate makes recommendations about schooling, housing placement and health issues.
The advocate's report is the first report that is read in a court case because they spend the most time with the child, Warr says. Social workers often handle hundreds of cases, but advocates only take one case with one child or several siblings. In addition, lawyers often talk to the children for only several minutes before the court case, she says.
When Warr discovered the foster parents weren't taking the girl to the doctor, she included this in her report.
"What I say as an advocate is not legally binding," says Warr, a full-time director of finance at a startup firm in Santa Clara. "But what the judge says is legally binding. So he said she must see a doctor."
Advocates have legal authority and the right to the child's medical and school records. They also speak to everyone involved in the system, including the parents' lawyers, child's lawyer and social workers, because they often cannot speak to each other. The adults don't always agree about the welfare of the child, but everyone respects one another, Warr said.
"The most important thing to her is that I became a stable person in her life while her environment was unstable," Warr said. "The level of consistency given to this child made a difference while everything was shifting around her."
Warr said she does not volunteer for many things, but that Child Advocates is a very well-run, supportive and credible organization. She said she enjoys taking classes that are a requirement of the program because she learns about the legal system, children's behaviors and how to establish boundaries in relationships.
Child Advocates of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties is a nonprofit organization that is affiliated with the National Court Appointed Special Advocates Association, which has its headquarters in Seattle. The program has served more than 1 million children since its inception in 1977, and this program in Santa Clara County began in 1986 and then expanded to include San Mateo County in 1990.
There are currently 700 volunteers, but there are still 400 children on the waiting list for an advocate. According to Mary Helen Doherty, executive director of Child Advocates, advocates first complete an eight-week training session, in which the advocate learns about the court system, how protective services works and issues about cultural diversity. Afterward, advocates are given a choice about what age and nationality they want to work with.
"Unfortunately a large percentage on the waiting list are older children, male, and children of color," she says. "Eighty percent of advocates are female, and we would like to see more men step up and participate."
Child Advocates will hold an orientation on the program Dec. 1, and training begins Jan. 17. For more information, call 408.436.6450 or visit www.cadvocates.org.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
