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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
All the Good Things: Child advocate Julie Stermer enjoys ice cream and laughs with one of the children she works with.
Child Advocates provide a voice for dependent children
By Amy Jenkins
There are many cases across the country of children who are taken away from their families because of abuse, neglect or abandonment and are placed into a temporary living situation until a judge decides what is best for them. In Santa Clara and San Mateo counties there are approximately 4,000 children who are dependents of the court and are waiting to be reunited with their families or put up for adoption. In the meantime, these children live in shelters, group homes or foster care.
Julie Stermer is a Campbell resident who has been a Child Advocate for 11 years and has handled two cases. As a Child Advocate, Stermer acts in the best interest of a child by mentoring him or her, presenting the child's case before the court and acting as the only adult who is always there when the child needs to talk to someone.
She said that often social workers and lawyers handle hundreds of cases and are not able to give as much attention to one child or one family as an advocate can, because an advocate handles only one child or several siblings at a time. The social workers, therapists and home placements may change often, so the child is left with no stable adult role model or living situation.
"An advocate's job is to figure out what kids' needs are and what they're not getting," she said.
The case Stermer is currently working on involves a family in which three children were taken away from their mother because she had a substance abuse problem. The two girls, who were toddlers at the time, were placed in a foster home together, while their older brother was placed in a separate foster home. Stermer said the children were not abused, neglected or beaten, and the only thing they understood was that they were taken away from the people they loved and placed with strangers.
"I found out they were not getting time with their mother and they were very attached to their mom," said Stermer, who found out about Child Advocates through the Big Brother/Big Sister program. "The mother was discouraged because the judge said she could see her children once a week, but she had no transportation while she was in a recovery program; and the foster parents were too busy taking the children to preschool and meetings to take them to see their mother."
Stermer decided to spend an hour of her visiting time with the children once a week, taking the children to see their mother. She would then take them to a park or McDonald's to talk afterward because it was hard for them to leave their mother, especially when she was recovering, Stermer said.
"Seeing the relationship allowed me to make better recommendations to the court about the kids," she said. "I was objective because I am not in the system, and I can report on what's going well with the kids."
Stermer is involved in the Infant and Toddler Program in Child Advocates, which aims to ensure the court process proceeds as quickly as possible. From birth to 5 years old, children bond with a caregiver, so it is important that they either be reunited with their parents or find adoptive homes. Plus, at this age, they are more likely to find an adoptive family than is an older child; and young children cannot go three or four years without a family, she said.
Stermer said the mother is recovering well and now has custody of her children. She said she suspects the case is close to dismissal, but she still visits the children and takes the family on outings. She said the mother is an amazing woman who has overcome a decade of substance abuse and is wonderful to her children. The children are happy to be with their mother as well, she said.
Child Advocates of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties is a nonprofit organization that is affiliated with the National Court Appointed Special Advocates Association, which has its headquarters in Seattle. The program has served more than 1 million children since its inception in 1977, and this program in Santa Clara County began in 1986 and then expanded to include San Mateo County in 1990.
An advocate always chooses a case; he or she is never assigned one because some are overwhelming and the organization wants volunteers to feel comfortable, Stermer said. It is rare that an advocate does not see a case all the way through because each becomes part of your personal life, Stermer said. She still contacts the child in the first case she handled, even after he aged out of the system when he turned 18 years old.
There are currently 700 volunteers, but 400 children are still on the waiting list for an advocate. After completing an eight-week training session, in which advocates learn about the court system, how protective services work and issues about cultural diversity, advocates are given a choice about what age and nationality they want to work with, said Mary Helen Doherty, executive director of Child Advocates.
"Unfortunately a large percentage on the waiting list are older children, male, and children of color," she says. "Eighty percent of advocates are female, and we would like to see more men step up and participate."
"The goal is instead of having a list of kids waiting for an advocate, to have a list of advocates waiting for children," Stermer said.
Child Advocates will hold an orientation on the program Dec. 1,. and training begins Jan. 17. For more information, call 408.436.6450 or visit www.cadvocates.org.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
