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Ask Your Supervisor...
By Debra Ravden & Kimberly Hutson,
Attorney/Supervisors
[Following is the first of a regular feature in our quarterly Voices for Children newsletters. CASA guardians, we invite your questions! Please submit them in writing to your supervisor, and the attorney/supervisors will pick the most timely to answer.]
What is the difference between a TPR referral and a TPR petition?
A TPR referral is done prior to the petition. It is the packet of information compiled by the DFS worker referring the case to the court for termination. The petition for termination is filed by the juvenile officer, DFS attorney or by a private attorney. It sets out allegations which must be proven in order to terminate parental rights.
How often should I be visiting my children?
Establishing and maintaining a relationship with a child is foundational in representing his or her best interests. You should visit your child at least once a month in his or her placement. In addition, you should visit prior to any court hearings and when apprised of emergencies or significant events that impact your child. Further, you may want to observe visits between child and parents.
What is appropriate to bring kids at visits?
It is appropriate (and encouraged!) at each visit to bring your child a book from our collection. At birthdays or holidays small toys are appropriate but certainly not required. It is not appropriate to provide large gifts of food, clothing or other necessities to the child, as this may lead to a confusion of roles.
How much information can I share about my case?
We recognize that Guardians ad litem are excited about their work and want to talk about their cases with others. However, you are required by law to keep information confidential. If foster parents ask questions about your case, refer them to DFS. When talking about your case with friends, you must not disclose any identifying information. For example, you can reveal that you represent
a 12 year old girl who has been sexually abused. But you can’t say what her name is, where she lives, what school she attends, or any details about her parents. Your child is counting on you to do what’s in his or her best interests and does not expect you to disclose the very personal details of his or her life.
Staff and Board Changes
One way Voices for Children is managing a growth spurt is by adding to and refining its support staff. We now have an Administrative Director, Mary Blegen, who is responsible for all business-related functions (human resources, fiscal management, etc.). Mary comes to us with 15 years of experience in operations management and program development of mental health programs. She is approaching her Voices for Children duties with eagerness and great aplomb. Mary’s new assistant, Michelle Burch, applied for the Administrative Assistant position after taking our spring training. She has a bachelor’s degree in music performance (French horn), but music is not her only area of creativity. Michelle has already shown herself to be self-directed, innovative and an “organizational wizard.”
In addition, we now have a fulltime Training Coordinator, Jennifer Dodson-Weihl, who looks forward to meeting her first class on September 8. After graduating from DePaul University’s law school, Jennifer first worked for a private law firm, for the Chicago Board of Education and then for the Center for Disability & Elder Law, where she gained experience in training.
All of these “new hires” are excited about helping St. Louis Voices for Children further its mission of serving children. Welcome, all!
Two new members are joining the Voices for Children Board. Both are attorneys, and both are the mothers of two young daughters. Nancy Inman rejoins the Board after spending a year and a half as our part time Training Coordinator. She did an outstanding job of revamping the curriculum and now returns to real estate law. Anita Cross is Director of Associate Development & Legal Recruiting for the law firm of Thompson Coburn. Nancy and Anita will bring legal expertise and enthusiasm for the well-being of children to the Board’s Strategic Planning and Facilities Planning committees.
Volunteer Spotlight: Rob Ferber, The Chocolate Man
“Children and chocolates touch our souls” was the message we sent with a little box of chocolates thanking CASA Guardians for their service to children. The line might well be Rob Ferber’s motto, for those were his chocolates, courtesy of Monogramme Confections, Rob’s company; and Rob is a Voices for Children Guardian.
Why a chocolate company? Rob just happened to be in the right place at the right time when the chance to buy Monogramme came along four and a half years ago. At that time he was a phone company sales representative, and he still operates like a sales rep. He calls chocolate “non-threatening” and enjoys taking samples on sales visits, for chocolate is hard for most people to resist.
Why children? Rob likes kids and says he’s good with them. His experience comes from 10 nieces and nephews, all under the age of 10, for whom Rob is a doting uncle. “Kids are cool,” he says. “They have so much potential. It’s adults who screw them up, and it’s adults who can help children take the right path at the crossroads.” Rob is conscious of that great responsibility both as uncle and as Child Advocate.
Becoming a CASA Guardian was another matter of being in the right place at the right time. A couple of years ago, when Rob felt at a low point and wanted to do some good somewhere, his Kansas City sister-in-law steered him towards CASA. He called Mary Taylor and began the application process, but not until two years later was he was able to attend training. On March 2, 2001, he was sworn in as a CASA Guardian and is already showing himself to be a natural.
Rob has now taken on his second case, the two cases being somewhat opposite. The first involved a group of older children in a situation where someone should have stepped in five years ago. No one, he says, was looking after the kids. They had no structure, nothing to do, and they mostly looked after themselves. He could almost see the situation perpetuating itself in future generations. These children will be reunited with their mother, but not before everyone involved recognizes the seriousness of the situation. Rob learned that to be an effective advocate, he must make the children a reality at meetings. If he didn’t speak up about the kids, he says, every meeting would have been all about mom and grandma.
His second case involves a two-year old with marks of abuse that no one admits to knowing about, mom included. In this case, too, “If I weren’t there, the meeting would not get around to the kid. The victim just would not be there.” Rob says he is learning where he fits in, and that is to make the children visible and real to all parties, including parents. Even something as seemingly small as making parents aware of the seriousness of the allegations is a big message, he says. In fact, this Child Advocate has some cogent words of advice for other new advocates, advice he says is the best of what he learned from Mary and Nancy during training: “Be inquisitive. Be skeptical. Ask lots of questions. Start digging. You’ve got a court order, for crying out loud!”
Being a CASA Guardian has been an eye-opener for Rob. He can no longer take his own comfort for granted knowing that a few short miles away, in parts of town previously unknown to him (and ignored by many), children need the protection of Voices for Children Guardians. Rob says that being an advocate for children means having a point of view. Figuratively, he puts on boxing gloves and says to parents, “I’m going to protect these kids. You’re not going to cross this line or get them back until I can tell the judge they’ll be safe.”
If this sounds a bit edgy for a man whose business is sweet confections, well, so be it. Rob Ferber doesn’t do anything halfheartedly, especially where the souls of children are at stake. For him, chocolates and children intersect at a place of integrity: in their essence, they are very, very good.
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St. Louis Voices for Children Receives $400,000 Demonstration Grant from National CASA
Grant goal is to enable program to serve more of the 4,000 City children now in foster care.
The National CASA Association has awarded a $400,000 Demonstration Grant to Voices for Children, one of only two urban programs nationwide to receive the grant. Of 935 CASA programs, National CASA invited 26 to apply for the grant, awarding it to only two: St. Louis City and Washington, D.C.
The Demonstration Grant (which we have dubbed “The Transformation Grant”) is made possible through the U.S. Department of Justice. The grant stipulates that the funds be distributed over two years, with the promise of constructing a system to enlist community support to sustain this level of commitment to children when the grant period ends. The goal of the grant is to transform Voices for Children’s program in order to serve significantly more of the 4,000 abused and neglected children currently in foster care in the City of St. Louis.
Though there are thousands of City children languishing in foster care, CASA has been able to serve only about 300 in a year. “We understand that the Demonstration Grant was given to Voices for Children because of the obvious need to assist thousands of abused and neglected children in St. Louis City,” says Mary Taylor, Executive Director of St. Louis Voices for Children. “The grant committee recognized that Voices for Children sits in a Juvenile Court that is progressive and willing to try new ways of helping children through the state Court Improvement Project. With the leadership of Administrative Judge Thomas J. Frawley, it has committed itself to change. That’s what Voices for Children is all about: Changing the lives of these vulnerable children.
“St. Louis is also viewed as a community that can be counted on to sustain this support after the grant runs out. We are overjoyed at receiving this gift and look forward to changing the lives of more abused and neglected children by helping them move from foster care into safe, permanent homes and giving them hope for a positive future.”
Spotlight on Court Personnel: Kathryn Herman, Assistant Court Administrator & Juvenile Officer
The road taken, never mind the one not taken, can yield surprises never thought of at the crossroad. So it was when Kathryn Herman answered an employment ad. There was no mention of “juvenile” or “children” in the ad, yet today she is Juvenile Officer as well as Assistant Court Administrator of the Family-Juvenile Court, 22nd Judicial District--and on quite a different road from her previous one as financial manager of a manufacturing company. Her understandings and her decisions now affect children, directly and indirectly, something she never dreamed of when she answered the ad.
As a person grows into and along with a job, the job itself grows, and this one is no exception. Obviously, Kathryn’s graduate business degree fit with the administrative duties of the job, but not until “juvenile officer” came into the mix did the undergraduate degree in psychology make a difference. That piece of her education fulfills a requirement for juvenile officer and is an added bonus for the leadership role she assumed under the court reorganization project.
The job has put this modest, quiet woman with the demure smile both behind the scenes and in the forefront of child welfare practice. As a result of court reorganization, DJOs now report to the court administrator rather than to the judge. The idea is to effect positive change in an ingrained system. This model brings together management principles and an outside perspective, and also allows DJOs to be more independent (and perhaps more honest) than when they were “employed” by the judge.
Likewise, says Kathryn, CASA child advocates bring an outsider’s point of view to effect change in the system. The judge, of course, makes the ultimate decision, but his decision is only as good as the information he receives from all parties around the table, and Voices for Children’s presence raises the ante. CASA Guardians have high expectations, she says, and they push others in the system, reminding them that they cannot and should not take action or make decisions on their own. In fact, she thinks, others in the system can learn from Voices for Children’s professionalism and commitment. When a CASA advocate does his or her work thoroughly and professionally, a great service is rendered to children, one that Kathryn would like to see extended to all children who come under the court's jurisdiction.
In the meantime, while she works to facilitate positive change in the court system, Kathryn Herman facilitates changes at home. She is mother to three growing children, ages 11, 13 and 14, whom she shepherds to lessons, rehearsals, sports practices, games, performances. She is surrounded by music, her own as a beginning violin student and that of her husband and children. (One imagines a household brimming with noise from strings to brass and woodwind.) She is surrounded also by books, lots and lots of books. She says she has always read aloud to her kids and still does, as well as reading for herself. Ask for a recommendation, and she’ll list some of books she’s read recently: Starting Out in the Evening, Cold Mountain, Plainsong, Stones from the River, Corelli’s Mandolin, Gap Creek; and she’ll recommend to all who work in child welfare The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care by Nina Bernstein, a compelling and cautionary chronicle of the far-reaching effects of being lost in the system.
Well aware of the blessings of home and family, Kathryn Herman comes to work each day aware of the children who lack those same blessings. One could say that each part of her life supports and enriches the other, and in each part she moves a bit closer to “the change [she] wishes to see in the world.”
Short Subjects
For the Children: Thanks to the July Tennis Aces event sponsored by radio station 106.5 WSSM, we have received generous checks and many toys (Barbies to Radio Flyers!).
Web Matters: Voices for Children’s web site, www.stlcitycasa.org, has been up and running for more than six months, and we are pleased with the response, especially in numbers of new volunteers. Phase II will focus on CASA Guardian support, e.g., volunteers will be able to submit paperwork through our secure site.
CASA Marketplace: Volunteers will be handling CASA wares and information at Wild Oats (August 21 & 25) and at Missouri Black Expo (August 25 & 26), thanks to Christine Lutz and Nova Felton.
Voices for Childrens, one by one, make a difference, one child at a time.
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