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Changing The World –By Advocating For Children

As Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of this global media platform & Chief Encouragement Officer of our affiliated pro bono social impact enterprise; GoodWorks 360°, I was delighted to have the opportunity to get better acquainted with Amy Foster, Executive Director of GUARDIAN ad Litem Foundation of Tampa Bay. Her nonprofit’s  mission is to advocate for and support children, young adults, and families impacted by abuse and neglect in Pinellas and Pasco Counties by collaborating with community partners and the Guardian ad Litem staff and volunteers who support the children they serve. They envision a community where every child and young adult is safe, secure, and thriving, and believe every child deserves to have a permanent family and be well prepared for their future beyond foster care. Learn more as you enjoy our inspiring Interview with Amy below ⤵︎

We’d like to hear about your professional journey before the Foundation.

I started my career as a substance abuse counselor in a maximum security facility for teen girls in Colorado. I quickly took off my rose-colored glasses and realized I wanted to expend my energy on prevention programs so I joined the professional team at Girl Scouts and designed curriculum for youth with disabilities and those living in low-income housing. After moving to Tampa, I joined Girl Scouts of West Central Florida and had a variety of roles. When I left Girl Scouts, I was the Director of Girl and Adult Leadership Development. I had received recognition for the work we were doing to involve girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics so I went on to work on a project funded by the National Science Foundation to bring promising practices to educators and establish collaborative groups across sectors in 43 states to address this issue. In addition to my role as the Executive Director of the Guardian ad Litem Foundation, I serve as a Council Member for the City of St. Petersburg. If I had to pick a common thread that weaves all of my work together, it is advocating for the underserved and most vulnerable populations.

Tell us about your nonprofit and the inspiration behind it.

The Guardian ad Litem Foundation of Tampa Bay provides advocacy and support to abused and neglected children. Volunteer Child Advocates are the child’s voice in court and the child’s best interest is their only interest. Children also need more help than the system can provide, so we help with anything they may need to thrive-that may be in the form of a bed, a car seat, tutoring, or football camp-we look at every child’s individual needs and try to provide that support.

What’s unique about your nonprofit?

There are lots of nonprofits in our area doing good work to help children and meet their needs. We are the only nonprofit that provides direct advocacy for them both in and outside of the courtroom-that may mean connecting them to the right therapy and provider, advocating for their needs in the classroom setting, or making sure their voice is heard in court. In addition, we advocate at the state level for laws to change to make things better for children while they are in foster care.

When did your nonprofit launch and what’s been your biggest challenge?

We launched in the current format 10 years ago. I’ve been the Executive Director for 5 years and I am the first executive they have had-so it really feels like we were just launched! The biggest challenge is running a lean nonprofit.

We are proud that 91 cents for every dollar donated goes to directly support our children, but that also limits capacity.

We have grown over the years from $40K to over $600K and 1 to 3 staff but there is a lot to do with our small but mighty staff.

Any noteworthy surprises or ‘A-ha’ Moments along the way?

I’d say my biggest A-ha moment along the way was a shift in mindset about the offending parents. I am a Volunteer Child Advocate myself and when I came to this work I believed parents who abused or neglected their children were “bad” and they didn’t “deserve” to get them back. I now understand a lot more about trauma and many of our parents were traumatized themselves. Every child no matter what their situation wants to go back to their parents. My best successes have been helping families reunify and helping them learn what they didn’t know along the way.

How would you describe your typical day?

No day is the same and in child welfare and any day can start with a “fire.” I should spend the majority of my time on fundraising and grant writing but it takes a lot of other things to make a nonprofit run. I could be doing accounting, writing a strategic plan, problem-solving an issue a child has, giving a presentation to a community group, or lugging in-kind donations around the office.

What about your “social impact/outcomes?”

We know that children heal best in relationships and Volunteer Child Advocates help them heal every day. These are the outcomes that have been proven across time for our program:

The Guardian ad Litem program saves tens of millions of dollars in federal and state government expenses. It is a research-based, effective program of trained, competent, court-appointed community volunteers stepping forward to deliver greater efficiency in government systems, and significantly improved outcomes for the abused and neglected children that they serve.

Better Outcomes Proven for Children

Low Guardian ad Litem (GAL) caseloads mean the courts can make better decisions for children. GAL volunteers handle just 1 or 2 cases at a time so that they can give each child’s case the sustained, personal attention he or she deserves.

Children with GAL volunteers spend less time in long-term foster care, experience fewer out of home placements, and have significantly improved educational performance.

Complex cases receive more attention so they can move forward in a timely way. Guardian ad Litem volunteers are typically appointed to the more complex children’s cases – those where there are multiple risk factors that must be fully understood in order to make a placement decision that will be in the child’s best interests.

More effective use of service dollars. Children with GAL volunteers and their families receive more court-ordered services and because of the volunteer’s detailed knowledge of the child’s circumstances, those services are more carefully targeted and monitored.

Cost-Effectiveness

Volunteer child advocates save tens of millions of dollars in child welfare costs alone. Just 12% of children assigned a Guardian ad Litem volunteer remain in long-term foster care, compared to 16% of the general foster care population.

The child welfare system could not afford to provide a comparable level of advocacy through non-volunteer approaches. In 2013, nationwide volunteer child advocates contributed 5.75 million advocacy hours, equivalent to almost $290 million in taxpayer dollars if compensated for their service.

By reducing long-term placements, subsequent victimization, and reentry into the foster care system, the Guardian ad Litem program substantially reduces foster care costs.

75 to 1 return on investment. Federal funding for one staff supervisory position within a local Guardian ad Litem program supports up to 30 trained volunteer workers, assigned to as many as 75 children within a year.

What’s the next big thing/challenge for your nonprofit?

Child welfare in Florida is in crisis. There are more children coming into care and they are staying longer with more complex problems. We have more children in our system in Pinellas and Pasco Counties than in Miami-Dade County. It is a struggle to continue to meet the demand and we need the whole community to step up to help. We need more foster parents, we need more prevention programs to keep children stay safely in their home with their parents, and we need more people willing to be a voice of a child in court.

As a nonprofit leader, what’s non-negotiable for you?

Integrity. Transparency. Outcomes. If I don’t feel like I am making a difference then I am in the wrong place. It doesn’t mean the work can’t be challenging with hills to climb that need perseverance but I have seen too many nonprofits keep doing the same thing with the same results and we owe it those we serve to seek real impact.

How can our readers learn more about/help the Guardian ad Litem Foundation?

You can learn more about our work and how to become a Guardian ad Litem at GUARDIAN ad Litem Foundation of Tampa Bay. We are also on most social media platforms under Guardian ad Litem Foundation of Tampa Bay, including Facebook and Twitter . I can be reached directly at [email protected] or 727-464-6528. And of course we would welcome donations ⤵︎

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BONUS QUESTION: What’s something interesting that most people wouldn’t know about you?

I once had to push a tourist bus out of the mud on the Serengeti while a cheetah was less than 20 feet away.

Dennis Pitocco
Dennis Pitoccohttps://www.bizcatalyst360.com/
DENNIS is the Founder & Chief ReImaginator of 360° Nation, encompassing a wide range of multimedia enterprises, including BizCatalyst 360° —the award-winning global media digest; 360° Nation Studios —dedicated to reaching across the world in an effort to capture, produce, and deliver positive, uplifting messages via blockbuster global events, and; GoodWorks 360° —a pro-bono consulting foundation focused entirely on providing mission-critical advisory services to nonprofits worldwide. Collaborating with his Chief Inspiration Officer (and wife), Ali, everything they do is "for-good" vs. "for profit". Their mission over the past decade-plus has been to rediscover humanity at its best, influencing and showcasing it every step of the way. Together, they do their very best to figure out what the world is trying to be —then using all their resources to help it to be better every day in every way. They understand and embrace the notion that it’s not about me or you; it’s about caring for the people we serve and more responsibly stewarding the precious resources in our care. And they believe it’s about showing up, being present, and intentionally giving our invaluable gifts of time, talent, and treasure "for good". Dennis is a contributing author to these Best-Selling Books ♦ Chaos to Clarity: Sacred Stories of Transformational ChangeJourney Well, You Are More Than EnoughThe Four-Fold Formula For All Things Wellness: True Stories of the Heart, Spirit, Mind, and Body Voices of Strength Win the Wellness W.A.R. We Are Responsible

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5 CONVERSATIONS

  1. Thank you for sharing this interview, Dennis. As a Guardian ad Litem volunteer, this one speaks directly to me and is such an important message. A high rate of workforce turnover is common in the child welfare field. High turnover affects not only the agency, primarily through higher costs, but also the children and families the agency serves.

    Annual turnover rates below 10–12 percent are considered optimal or healthy. According to the most recent report, child welfare turnover rates have been between 20–40 consistently over 15 years. The available data reflect a national average turnover rate of approximately 30 percent with individual agency rates as high as 65 percent. When a Guardian ad Litem accepts a case, he or she commits to seeing it through to the end (i.e., permanent guardianship/adoption or reunification with the family). Due to the high turnover in DCF, the Guardian is often the ONLY consistent voice for the child.

    The GAL program is such a valuable program for kids, families and our communities. I urge folks who are looking for a way to make a really difference in their communities to learn more about their local GAL program.

    • A truly “priceless” program here, Melissa in so many respects and under the radar, hence; our desire to shine a beacon of light on the great work carried out by Amy and her dedicated staff and volunteers every day of the year. Thanks for adding more substance to the “story behind the story” of this extraordinary nonprofit.

    • Melissa,
      Thank you for your generous service to our community and especially our kids. I will mention that in other states, foster children are assigned a lawyer to help them through the process and these lawyers do stay with their children. The statistics you cite are quite troubling and real. One of the reasons for this high turnover is that the caseload for DCF caseworkers is so large. While Florida volunteers do a marvelous job, our state needs to provide more protection for our children.
      Mary

    • I completely agree, Dr. Lippitt. I have had the privilege of working with some amazing caseworkers. They work with the most vulnerable, at-risk folks, often maintain ridiculous hours, and extreme case loads. As one of the most important jobs in our society, many are overworked and underpaid. It may be one of the most thankless jobs out there. Thank you for your comment. The statistics I shared in no way were meant to disparage the caseworkers.

    • In our fast changing world, it is hard to get attention and funding for those without a voice– children. There are many dedicated people in and out of the government who are making a difference and they could do so much more if our community and legislature offered more support. Just to give one example, I know of a boy who had a marvelous mentor/coach/support system and he is now attending Stanford. Now I do not mean to suggest that all of the children will be able to attend an elite school, but they could do so much more if they had support even if it recognizing how to start a career as a beautician.

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