By Jan Pudlow
Senior editor

The day Peggy Quince became chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, she asked lawyers to volunteer for the Fostering Independence Project to help youth aging-out of foster care become productive citizens.

Smiling among the well-wishers in the packed courtroom at the passing-of-the-gavel ceremony was Dennis Moore, interim executive director and general counsel of the Florida Guardian ad Litem Program.

He knows that too often when foster children turn 18 or 19, they are dumped into the world with no one.

What can happen when a child has no family, no plan, no one to call? Homelessness. Trouble with the law. No job. No hope.

“We know that is really the problem. They are just alone in the world,” Moore said. “If you have no real role model, or if you have no one who potentially cares about your problems, I think it causes you to drift into some bad company and bad ways.”

Lawyers can be a force of goodness to the rescue.

Chief Justice Quince has embraced the Fostering Independence Project and plans to speak at community groups and voluntary bar associations. The goal is to recruit lawyers to step in as volunteer guardians ad litem when the child is 16 and 17 — time enough to forge a relationship and craft a workable plan before the child officially “ages out” of foster care and dependency court jurisdiction at 18 or 19.

As Quince said at her swearing-in ceremony: of 6,500 volunteer GALs, only 700 are lawyers, yet “lawyers really do have the skills that can be effective in bringing children’s issues up before the court.”

Currently, about 700 “aging out” youth have GALs, according to the statewide office, but approximately another 2,000 need representation.

“It really is her initiative and her vision to provide advocates for all children in the dependency system,” Moore said. “We’re really fortunate to have her pick up that initiative and we’re going to assist her by providing the framework for making that happen.”

If you are willing to represent a foster teenager, there is a streamlined eight-hour training available on DVD and on online that you can watch from the comfort of your own home. The training is free of charge and qualifies you for CLE credit and an hour of ethics is included.

You won’t be flung out on your own in unfamiliar territory, Moore assures. You will have the support of a GAL program attorney and social worker as you deliver special pro bono service to teens.

Some of the children have been in foster care for most of their lives.

“A lot of these kids are super smart and compassionate, and if they just had someone to show them how to find things, how to apply for secondary education, how to find ways to get health care, where to find housing, it would really make a difference,” Moore said.

He cites 2005-06 national statistics that show what can happen if these youth don’t have someone in their corner.

“One-fifth of youth that transition into adulthood out of foster care will be homeless,” Moore said. “I think an advocate can’t cure all of that, but it can certainly help ensure that someone is there fighting so that these kids, when they get out of care, have access to adequate and appropriate housing.”

Only 58 percent of children who leave foster care will acquire a high school diploma — compared to 87 percent of the general population, Moore said, and approximately 3 percent earn college degrees, compared to 28 percent of the general population.

Lack of education diminishes employment opportunities.

“I think the system as a whole has really neglected these kids. I think all of us who have been involved with the system have needed to really take this set of kids and start looking at: How are we failing these kids and what can we do to start turning that battleship around?” Moore said.

Some issues may be going to court to get clothing vouchers for a 16-year-old pregnant girl who needs maternity clothes; helping an 18-year-old get access to a trust fund of Social Security benefits accumulated during residential treatment care and understand how to manage the money wisely; or making sure the child’s voice is heard when officials on the case discuss the child’s fate as foster care winds to an end.

It can be as simple as serving as a role model who instills in the child there is hope for the future when the law proclaims the foster child is now an adult.

“As stewards of this state, our greatest obligation is to our children. But often it is their voice that goes unheard, or is overlooked. Our children need a voice. They need to be at the table, because soon it will be their table,” Moore quoted Gov. Charlie Crist, at his 2007 State of the State speech.

“I think it fits very well with the GAL mission to provide a voice for every child in Florida’s dependency system,” Moore said.

And every child should include those soon-to-be legal adults cast out on their own.

For more information, click here. You may also call toll-free (866) 341-1GAL and you will be put in touch with the local GAL program office in your circuit, or you may call the statewide office in Tallahassee at (850) 922-7213.

© The Florida Bar - 7/16/2008 - Version 1.0.2