Do You Know What a Guardian ad Litem Volunteer Does?

Recent statistics show Sarasota and Manatee counties have doubled the state average for child removals due to abuse, neglect and abandonment. Right here in our community there are abused and neglected children who live in the shadows of our lives. 

He or she may be the little boy/girl in your grandchild's or child’s kindergarten class, who had to move homes and change schools three or four times in the last year. He may be the lonely child at the park who doesn’t join the game or the little girl who has already suffered in an abusive home, enters the foster care system which places her in three or four different homes in just a few months. Or the two siblings who lost their mother to incarceration are split up and living on different sides of these same county.

The Guardian ad Litem Volunteer is a child advocate — giving a child a voice in the court system and helping protect the rights of each child in state care.

Have you ever thought you wanted to help or give back and really make a difference volunteering?  This might be just what you are looking for.

The program trains and supports volunteers—people like you and me—to speak and act as advocates for the best interests of abused and neglected children. Volunteers are trained to work within the child welfare and family court systems and are appointed by judges to individual cases.

Look for our blog each week on what goes on with the GAL Program and our children. I'll share wonderfull successes stories and the heart breaking dissappointments.

www.12gal.org