Because KARA connects with CASA programs nationwide, we’ve identified child protection policies and practices that are effective, those that are ineffective, and some that are actually harmful.
Our hardest lessons have come from our own State program where new management worked hard to eliminate CASA volunteers for unsupportable reasons. The Guardian ad Litem office atmosphere became anxious and unfriendly. This unhappy office stayed that way for a very long time as volunteers were being pushed out the door with minimal contact and occasional inadequate explanation.
Thankfully Judges and the media spoke out and reason prevailed. The program has been saved. It’s now 12 volunteers but the office atmosphere is still not what it could be.
Current staff Guardians ad Litem number 192. Turnover in the office today is about 50%/year (retention about two years), which is how long it takes to give a new Guardian ad Litem the experience needed to be effective. Constantly replacing this many staff people in a tight job market has been impossible. According to public data, this means that 250 Minnesota children are without a Guardian ad Litem to help them through the most frightening time of their life (over 5000 children/year have a Court Appointed Guardian ad Litem).
In business, average employee turnover is about 13%. This high rate of Guardian ad Litem job dissatisfaction and turnover is very expensive even without the negative value of the disruption it causes the children involved or the courts and process of Child Protective Services.
In business this extreme cost of turnover would be unsustainable. Think about it: *400 volunteers gone because of misguided management policies. 400 workers averaging 20 hours a month with a wage value of $25/hour ($2.5 million dollars annually.
Add to this 7.5 extra months in foster care that 250 children without GAL’s experience $3250/month or $24,375 per child) * 250 children per year 12 = ($6,093,000.00 in saved foster care dollars) plus saved wages of 2.5 million dollars =$8,593,753,000.00 in government funding that could have been saved.
*While the Star Tribune article linked in this article refer to 260 volunteers, this CASA volunteer remembers the number at about 400 for decades.
WHEN YOU Share KARA’s reporting with FRIENDS, INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK
and most of all, your State Representative (find them here) change will come a little bit faster.
Small efforts = real results.
When enough of us become informed and
speak up for abused and neglected children,
we will improve their lives and our communities!
From the Star Tribune article, “Children really don’t have a voice in courtroom except through the adults, so the guardian program is very important,” said Kathleen Blatz, a former Minnesota Supreme Court chief justice who serves on the state’s Guardian ad Litem Board. “To have volunteers who are so connected to the community … and, with training, are very qualified to give in this meaningful way for children — and I just think, why would we say no to that?”
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Original text with links to comments & rebuttals of management here
