On Monday, February 25, 2013, the Florida Guardian ad Litem Program issued a press release of special significance to our program.

Lorraine Donovan-Lepanto, Senior Program Attorney, was promoted to Supervising Child's Best Interest Attorney effective as of February 20, 2013.

"Children are fortunate that Lorraine is taking a leadership role as the guardian ad litem supervising attorney in the second circuit," said Alan Abramowitz, Executive Director of the statewide program. "Her experience and passion will ensure children in foster care have an independent voice fighting for them."

You can read the entire press release below.

Congratulations to Lorraine!

For Immediate Release
February 25, 2013
Contact: Alan Abramowitz (850) 922-7213
 

GUARDIAN AD LITEM ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF LORRAINE DONOVAN-LEPANTO AS NEW SUPERVISING ATTORNEY

Alan Abramowitz, Executive Director of the Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office, announced today that Lorraine Donovan-Lepanto, currently the Senior Program Attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit Guardian ad Litem Program, has been promoted to Supervising Child's Best Interest Attorney, effective February 20, 2013.

As stated by Alan Abramowitz, "Children are fortunate that Lorraine is taking a leadership role as the Guardian ad Litem supervising attorney in the second circuit. Her experience and passion will ensure children in foster care have an independent voice fighting for them."

Ms. Moore, Second Judicial Circuit Director stated, "Ms. Donovan-Lepanto is committed and extremely knowledgeable about the dependency court system. I am grateful for Ms. Donovan-Lepanto's strong advocacy for many children in our program these past six years I and look forward to continuing to work with her to move our program forward.

Donovan-Lepanto has been with the Second Judicial Circuit program since January 2007. In her new role as Supervising Child's Best Interest Attorney, Donovan-Lepanto will supervise legal staff and support the Program's primary mission: advocating for the best interests of children involved in the dependency court system. Throughout the Big Bend area, the Second Judicial Circuit Guardian ad Litem Program serves close to 500 abused, neglected and abandoned children under court supervision with the support of approximately 300 guardian ad litem volunteer advocates.

"I am honored to part of our Guardian ad Litem Program and look forward to continuing to serve and advocate for the best interest of our abused, neglected and abandoned children." said Donovan-Lepanto.

For more information about how to become involved with the Guardian ad Litem Program, log on to our website, www.guardianadlitem.org or contact us at (850) 922-7213.

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On Monday, February 11, 2013, Florida Guardian ad Litem Program Executive Director Alan Abramowitz sent an email to circuit staff and volunteers highlighting the status of recruiting efforts so far this year.

You can read Abramowitz's message below.

We have good news to share regarding our guardian ad litem recruiting efforts year to date. Here are some highlights.

• We have reached 107% of our cumulative recruiting goal through January 2013.
• This represents 1,651 new volunteers recruited since July 2012.
• Fifteen of 20 circuits have exceeded their cumulative recruiting goals.
• We are within 10 percentage points of reaching our year-end goal for December 2013 of 9,136 case volunteers.
• We currently have 8,215 case volunteers. This is the highest number of case volunteers the GAL program has ever had.
• We project that by December 31, 2013, 12 of our 20 circuits will have reached their capacity to adequately supervise more volunteers. We use National Court Appointed Special Advocate standards of 1 paid volunteer coordinator to 38 volunteers to calculate capacity. While we can exceed these standards, the quality of support will decline and this has a critical impact on attrition of volunteers and quality of services to children.
• If the Legislature determines that program expansion is a funding priority, we can rapidly add staff to recruit and support additional volunteer and children. I will be legislatures know that if there is an opportunity we can expand faster than our five year plan to get to 100% of children represented.

Thanks for all you do for children. You are making a difference in your advocacy for children.

Respectfully,

Alan Abramowitz

We regularly host a variety of events to provide community outreach, raise awareness of our program, recruit new volunteers, fund raise and furnish training to our volunteer guardians ad litem. The following event was recently added to our calendar.

My JumpVault
A continuing education event hosted by the Second Judicial Circuit Educational Advocacy Team. Information will be provided on a safe and secure place online to store and easily retrieve all of your child's important documents.

• My JumpVault
  Monday, March 18, 2013, 6:00-7:00 PM

The Play Therapy 101 continuing education session has been rescheduled. It will now take place on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 from 5:30 to 7:00 PM.

Originally scheduled for Monday, February 11, 2013, the training was suspended on Tuesday, January 29, 2013 due to a scheduling conflict.

Visit the Play Therapy 101 event flyer for additional details and to RSVP.

The training program for new and recertifying guardians ad litem scheduled for March 2013 as Volunteer Training N has been cancelled.

Please refer to the Training page for a list of all other upcoming classes.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

On Saturday, February 2, 2013, Capital City Youth Services hosted the 2013 Tally Awards Gala at the Tallahassee Automobile Museum and announced this year's winners. The Tally Awards are presented annually to Tallahassee's best businesses as voted by the people.

Congratulations to eight of our community supporters who were among the winners!

Congratulations again to our great supporters and to all of this year's winners.

We regularly host a variety of events to provide community outreach, raise awareness of our program, recruit new volunteers, fund raise and furnish training to our volunteer guardians ad litem. The following event was recently added to our calendar.

Community Shopping Night
Make purchases and Ten Thousand Villages will donate 15% of proceeds to CAII in support of our program and local children.

• Community Shopping Night at Ten Thousand Villages
  Thursday, March 7, 2013, 5:00-8:00 PM

We regularly host a variety of events to provide community outreach, raise awareness of our program, recruit new volunteers, fund raise and furnish training to our volunteer guardians ad litem. The following events were recently added to our calendar.

• Educational Advocacy Training
  Tuesday, February 19, 2013 and Monday, February 25, 2013
   
• Advanced Skills Course 2: Effective Information Gathering
  Thursday, February 28, 2013
   
• Circuit Director Meet and Greet
  Friday, March 1, 2013

We regularly host a variety of events to provide community outreach, raise awareness of our program, recruit new volunteers, fund raise and furnish training to our volunteer guardians ad litem. The following events have been recently added to our calendar.

Volunteer Training Q2 2013
Volunteer guardians ad litem are required to complete thirty hours of pre-service training in order to become certified and undergo regular recertification. The training curriculum includes classroom learning, reading, court observation and practice activities. The sessions are typically scheduled over the course of six evenings, each lasting three and a half hours.

• Volunteer Training P
  April 8, 10, 11, 15, 17 and 18
   
• Volunteer Training Q
  May 6, 8, 9, 13, 15 and 16
   
• Volunteer Training R
  June 10, 12, 13, 17, 19 and 20
   

The Second Judicial Circuit Guardian ad Litem Program and Child Advocates II (CAII) work to build partnerships with individuals, businesses and organizations in the community.

Without the assistance provided by our CAII Partners and community supporters, ensuring children have a court-appointed volunteer guardian ad litem, legal assistance and financial resources would be extremely difficult.

The following supporter was recently added to Community Supporters.

• Synergy Salon

We thank Synergy Salon and all of our partners and supporters for their generous contributions!