The Greenville Guardian ad Litem program will hold a free training course to teach community volunteers how to advocate for children taken from homes of abuse and neglect.
The 30-hour training program focuses on the family court system, how to recognize abuse and neglect, and how to communicate with children and others involved in the case. The first class begins Monday, July 29th at 10 a.m. and will be held at General Air at 5409 Augusta Road in Greenville.
A child advocate, or Guardian ad Litem as it is called in South Carolina, is trained to become the voice of a child in court. The program pairs the trained GAL with children involved in neglect and abuse cases in order to give family court judges a more complete picture of the children’s needs.
All volunteers must be at least 21 and pass a background and Central Registry check before they can take a case. Each case takes a commitment of about four to six hours per month, but program organizers say volunteers are often the only source of stability for children who regularly move to different foster homes, transfer to new schools, change case workers and often lose contact with friends and extended family members.
For more information, call (864) 467-5862 or visit www.Greenville.scgal.org.