{"id":903,"date":"2018-04-24T13:21:36","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T17:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/?p=903"},"modified":"2019-10-24T16:34:29","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T20:34:29","slug":"celebrating-volunteers-childs-advocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/celebrating-volunteers-childs-advocate\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the Volunteers of The Child’s Advocate!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, 530,000 of North Carolina\u2019s children lived in poverty, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation\u2019s KIDS COUNT Project<\/a><\/u>. This astonishing number means that nearly 1 in 4 children lived at or below the federal poverty level, limiting available resources for necessities like housing, food, health care, and transportation.<\/p>\n

While growing up in poverty negatively affects many aspects of a child\u2019s life, these difficulties are exacerbated when a child also experiences conflict at home. The Child\u2019s Advocate<\/a><\/u>, a project of Legal Aid of North Carolina<\/a><\/u>, works to resolve some of these tough situations by providing attorneys to children in highly contentious family court cases in Wake County. The program works with private lawyers and mental health professionals in cases which usually involve chronic conflict between parents, neglect, substance abuse, child abuse, domestic violence, continuing litigation, mental illness, or children with special needs.<\/p>\n

Pro bono attorneys are critical in protecting the interests of The Child Advocate\u2019s young clients, ensuring that their voices are heard. As attorney volunteer Evonne Hopkins shared, \u201cI volunteer for the kids. There are kids in the county who are not being heard and who are caught up in a horrible custody battle. The children are the ultimate victims of these cases \u2013 powerless victims \u2013 who didn\u2019t ask for this experience. As a volunteer, I can advocate for these children, offer them someone to confide in, and hopefully help them stay out of the middle of the fight. And ultimately, if their case ends up in court, I can either prepare my client to testify or find ways for the court to hear the evidence it needs to ensure that my client\u2019s voice is being heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pro bono attorney Susan Goetcheus also shared the importance of volunteering with The Child\u2019s Advocate: \u201cWorking as a lawyer, you are tied to a community and a system of government. It feels natural and fulfilling to give back to the community, especially working with children, to help those who are unable to pay your fees. But it is also important that fairness be built into the system \u2013 fairness should be spread out to those who cannot afford an attorney, and pro bono volunteers can help ensure that fairness.<\/p>\n

Cases taken on by The Child\u2019s Advocate are good for pro bono attorneys as well. According to family law attorney and pro bono volunteer Sydney Batch: \u201cPro bono legal service with The Child\u2019s Advocate has helped inform my paid work because I can share with my paying clients the importance of leaving children out of litigation, minimizing conflict, and information to position them to effectively and positively change the trajectory of kids\u2019 lives.\u201d She goes on to share \u201cThese are cases that I do on my own time that I find fulfilling and enriching, but if I were not their attorney, these clients would lose the opportunity to be heard and justice would not be served.\u201d Similarly, attorney volunteer Pat McNally shared that volunteering with The Child\u2019s Advocate \u201cbrings a new perspective for my regular cases, where I advocate for parents as opposed to advocating for a child \u2013 the work reminds us that there is still another human being involved in the case: the child.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Child\u2019s Advocate provides needed support for vulnerable children in our community, and thanks the following pro bono attorney volunteers for their assistance in providing that support:<\/p>\n

Catherine Bailey
\nSydney Batch
\nVictoria Bender
\nJennifer Boyer
\nAmy Britt
\nJamie Davis
\nDeb Dilman
\nHeather Forshey Williams
\nMichael Fury
\nSusan Goetcheus
\nJordan Gross
\nAngela Haas
\nYvonne Hopkins
\nIhuoma Igboanugo
\nBrad Jones
\nKatie King
\nTara Kozlowski
\nJoan Kuruc
\nTiffany Lesnik
\nKathy Lucas
\nPat McNally
\nKathleen Murphy
\nHelen O\u2019Shaughnessy
\nSteve Palme
\nShaun Pollenz
\nCarlos Rojas
\nKristen Ruth
\nDebbie Sandlin
\nBecky Santawasso
\nGenevieve Sims
\nMatt Stauff
\nHolly Stephens
\nAlice Stubbs
\nJennifer Tharrington
\nHeather Williams
\nMonica Webb
\nRhonda Young<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, 530,000 of North Carolina\u2019s children lived in poverty, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation\u2019s KIDS COUNT Project. This astonishing number means that nearly 1 in 4 children lived at or below the federal poverty level, limiting available resources for necessities like housing, food, health care, and transportation. While growing up in poverty... <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[35,40,44],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1820,"href":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncprobono.org\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}