Court Appointed Special Advocates - Making a Difference

Court Appointed Special Advocates - Unpacking Hope

Welcome New GAL Volunteers!!

We are very excited to welcome our newest group of GAL volunteers!
They are pictured here with the Honorable Judge Rickey McKoy-Mitchell

Knowing Who You Are

Everyone here at the Mecklenburg Guardian ad Litem Advocacy Foundation is very excited about receiving the Speedway Children’s Charities grant. We attended the ceremony last Monday, and are humbled and excited to begin our latest project, Knowing Who You Are. The GALA Foundation will be partnering with the Guardian ad Litem Program and the Department of Social Services to coordinate this initiative.

Every child who enters the foster care system is confused, frightened and overwhelmed with the reality of being taken from all they know and being thrown into a new and often strange environment. A disproportionate number of our children are from minority communities and while the Department of Social Services strives to keep them within their communities, often many of them are placed in homes very different from the ones in which they were raised.

The goal of this project is to: help make the transitions for children in foster care as smooth as possible, foster healthy racial and ethnic identities within them, and to provide the GAL volunteers with another resource through which they can build relationships with their child clients. The GALA Foundation will be purchasing books with positive cultural or racial messages to help ease the transitions for children and help them develop a positive identity. 

Social workers, judges, program supervisors, and eventually Guardian ad Litem volunteers will be trained to identify and help those children who may be in need. The books will be distributed through our Guardian ad Litem volunteers and will also provide another way for our volunteers and their child clients to bond! More information about KWYA can be found at:  http://www.casey.org/Resources/Initiatives/KnowingWhoYouAre/

 Keep an eye on our blog and our website for more updates on this new initiative!

Mecklenburg Guardian ad Litem Program is in the news!!

Great things keep popping up here at the Guardian ad Litem office. Check out the Charlotte Observer article on some of our great volunteers!

The article highlights three different volunteers, and their reasons behind becoming a Guardian ad Litem volunteer, as well as a little bit about what exactly it is that they do as Guardians ad Litem. If you are curious about the program and would like a little bit more about what exactly is a Guardian ad Litem, check out the article!

National Adoption Day

November 20^th is National Adoption Day, a day to celebrate and finalize the adoptions of hundreds of children from the foster care system. This day brings together all of the different agencies, professionals and advocates that play a part in the child’s well-being and placement. This is a day to celebrate a child’s welcome into a new home and also draw awareness to the thousands of children that are yet to find a safe and permanent home.  It is also a chance for all of the different agencies to collaborate and come together for a celebratory event.  According to the website for National Adoption Day, it is expected that 4,500 children currently in foster care will have their adoptions finalized on November 20^th.

This is a national event and here in Mecklenburg County we will be celebrating at the court house in Uptown beginning at 8am. The Guardian ad Litem program, the Mecklenburg Guardian ad Litem Advocacy Foundation, the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services and other agencies are sponsoring this event. We are all excited to celebrate this momentous day in children’s lives. For more information about national adoption day:  http://www.nationaladoptionday.org

 

 

Look for us on Twitter and Facebook!

The Mecklenburg Guardian ad Litem Advocacy Foundation is now on Facebook and Twitter (MeckGALA). Look out for updates about the Foundation, the Program, and interesting news articles about foster care, foster children and adoption issues.

So what in the world is the Mecklenburg Guardian ad Litem Advocacy Foundation???

If you have read my previous post (So what in the world is a Guardian ad Litem?) , I spent some time describing the Guardian ad Litem program, and would now like to spend some time on the Mecklenburg Guardian ad Litem Advocacy Foundation (which will be called GALA Foundation for the rest of this post). Although most of my efforts pertain to promoting the Guardian ad Litem program, I do work for the GALA Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Charlotte, NC.

The mission of the GALA Foundation is to: raise community awareness about the issue of child abuse and neglect in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region, by way of, promoting the Guardian ad Litem Program, assisting with volunteer recruitment, and supporting the work of the Guardian ad Litem volunteers.

In 2004, a group of Guardian ad Litem (GAL) volunteers realized there was a need for more community awareness and resources for children in the foster care and court system. Thus the group took the initiative to form a foundation which would serve to bridge some of the gaps in the children’s care through supporting the GAL volunteers. Consequently, the GALA Foundation was established in April of 2005.  Currently, the GALA Foundation is comprised of a five-member, volunteer Board of Directors, and three AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer staff members.

So what in the world is a Guardian ad Litem????

So I’m guessing if you are reading this you have somehow stumbled upon this blog while looking for information about the Guardian ad Litem program, foster care or adoption or some other similar topic. Well welcome to the Mecklenburg Guardian ad Litem Advocacy Foundation’s blog, dedicated to all things dealing with foster care, foster children, adoption and of course, the Guardian ad Litem Program. 

The mission of the Mecklenburg Guardian ad Litem Advocacy Foundation is to promote community awareness about the issue of child abuse and neglect in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region, by way of, promoting the Guardian ad Litem Program, assisting with volunteer recruitment, and supporting the work of the Guardian ad Litem volunteers. Hence, this blog will be an outlet not only for the Mecklenburg Guardian ad Litem Advocacy Foundation, but also for the Guardian ad Litem program and all things foster care.

The mission of the Guardian ad Litem (GAL) program in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina is to advocate for abused and neglected children in foster care. As the eyes and the ears of the court, the Guardian ad Litem volunteer researches and gathers important information focusing on the individual child. The volunteer partners with a GAL Attorney Advocate to make recommendations to the Judge about the child’s best interests and expressed wishes. At this time,  there are over 800 children in the GAL program and approximately 260 assigned volunteers.

Anyone who is 18 years or older and who has a sincere concern for the well being of children can be a GAL volunteer. After initial training, the position requires an average of 6 to 10 hours of time per month on a case. Many GAL’s work full time and visit their GAL child in the evenings, on weekends, or even during lunchtime. You can become a Guardian ad Litem volunteer and make a difference in the life of child by visiting www.galcharlotte.com.

Are you a Guardian ad Litem? Have you ever been a Guardian ad Litem? Are you a foster child or adopted child with something to say on the matter? Are you simply a concerned citizen? Feel free to comment, I look forward to hearing stories about how the Guardian ad Litem program, and the foster care system has affected your life.