By MARK GILCHRIST
Staff photogrpaher

As far as volunteer jobs go, being a children’s Guardian ad Litem is no walk in the park. You deal with the judicial system, red tape, overextended social workers, dysfunctional families, unexpected delays, and more red tape. And you do it all for a kid you don’t even know.

But every minute is worth it.

As a Guardian, you are a volunteer for the courts. You visit the child, assess his or her living conditions and learn all you can about the case. Then you compile a report that the judge will refer to when making decisions about the child’s future.

“I would not have been able to make the differences in so many children’s lives,” said Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Douglas Sasser, “without the help of Guardians ad Litem.”

Attorney Paula Greene represents the child at hearings, so most of your work is behind the scenes. You attend a few meetings through the year, but mostly, your schedule is flexible. There are cracks in any system, and you are simply there to ensure that the best interests of the child don’t fall through them. No legal experience is necessary.

One Guardian’s case involved a boy who, for various reasons, had to be removed from his family. The boy, unfortunately, was not so young, and his age, combined with some emotional and legal challenges, made it hard for him to dream about spending the rest of his youth in a stable family.

To lack such a basic dream is a shame for any child, but for this boy it seemed even worse. He always wore a beautiful smile and appeared cheerful, active and curious about the world around him.

Professionals saw the boy as very special, but he was only one child among dozens of their cases, and he had lived in a foster home for two years before the Guardian ad Litem took the case.

As a Guardian, you have a few advantages over most professionals on a case. First, you have time. Most Guardians work on only one or two cases, so you can really focus. Sure, you may also have a full-time job, but for a few hours a week, you can focus on just a few children.

Working on the boy’s case, the Guardian went through the file, digging up numbers provided by the social worker and calling everyone involved. This is easy work, as you develop a set of simple questions; “How is he doing? What is new with the case? What do you feel is in his best interest?”

And you can ask anyone, because as a Guardian you have access. Normal barriers are removed for you with your unique mandate, the best interest of the child. Working with the team of lawyers, social workers and other professionals, you ask a lot of questions, and you’ll find that people are usually familiar with your role and are ready to work with you.

You have well earned this access. Before receiving credentials and cases, you’ll undergo background checks, with references, and interviews. Then you’ll take an oath before a judge.

In many cases you just keep an eye on the child’s best interests as the case goes through the courts. But sometimes in a big way, and quite often in little ways, you will do something on a case that makes a real difference for a child.

Helping in the search for a stable family for the boy, the Guardian found in the file the names of a couple who had long ago shown interest, but who had apparently been forgotten. After a few phone calls and interviews, the couple became viable candidates.

Often, after a combination of good luck, patience with “the system” and a lot of hard work by yourself, social workers, attorneys and others, sometimes your case ends in a good resolution.

That boy is now in a stable home, with a family that is eagerly planning for his promising future. This is what the attorneys on the case wanted. It is what the social workers wanted, and what the therapists, teachers and foster parents wanted. They all got what they wanted because of a volunteer with some free time and focus.

You can be that volunteer, and with some free time, you can positively affect the lives of children. Want to save the world? This is a good place to start. Children, I have noticed, grow into adults, and whether they become a part of the world’s problems or its solutions is based on the family structure they had growing up.

Your final event in a case is usually a court hearing. So you’ll go to that hearing, and you’ll watch Greene argue the case, assisted by GAL Program Supervisor Christy Robbins and yourself. Tension tends to build during hearings because you never really know what will happen next, or exactly how the judge feels, until you hear the decision, and you’ve waited a long time for this.

Sasser said about the work of a Guardian; “There is no instant gratification.” It often takes months – and sometimes years – for a case to be resolved, and now is the time for the payoff. It can be as exciting as the big leagues.

The sound of the gavel after a favorable decision is the crack of the bat. The look of intense relief and excitement on the faces of the child and the new parents is the ball sailing over the fence. The handshakes from everyone, regardless of whether they even knew how you were involved, is your rounding of the bases.

And if you’re anything like me, you’ll wonder. You’ll wonder just how it is that they let you, an ordinary person, do something like this for complete strangers.

You’ll stand there in the courtroom as lawyers and officers move onto other cases and the new family celebrates. But to you it is all a blur, a whirl of noises and motion as you recount the past few months and realize that it is all over, and the only clear vision you have is of the beautiful smile on that young boy’s face.

To learn more about volunteering as a Guardian ad Litem, call Christy Robbins at 641-3095. Also, visit www.nccourts.org and select Guardian ad Litem in the Quick Site Index drop-down menu.