I Speak For This Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate
Read I Speak For This Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate Online
Authors: Gay Courter
| I Speak For This Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate |
| Gay Courter |
| Egret E-book Editions (2001) |
In I Speak For This Child, best-selling novelist Gay Courter recounts her experiences as a Guardian ad Litem, a volunteer court-appointed advocate for children involved in Florida's court system. Following her first tentative approach to her local Court Appointed Special Advocates program to her more determined efforts, we get an insider's glimpse on this hidden world and learn what it takes to ensure that America's most vulnerable citizens are treated with care and respect. Courter's story is both heartbreaking and heartwarming, and is an inspiration for anyone who has ever looked up from a newspaper and wondered, "What can I do to help?"
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I Speak
for
This
Child
True Stories of a Child Advocate
GAY
COURTER
The events in this book are true. These are real cases presented as accurately as possible. Some of the individuals in this book are composites and except for nationally publicized cases, all names and identifying characteristic of people and places have been changed to assure their anonymity.
Excerpt from “The Change” in OPENINGS, copyright © 1968 by Wendell Berry, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company
“Listen to the Mustn’ts from WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS by Shel Silverstein. Copyright © 1975 by Evil Eye Music, Inc. By permission of Edite Kroll Literary Agency.
From THE POETRY OF ROBERT FROST. Copyright © 1928. 1930, 1939, 1949, 1969 by Henry Holt and Co., Inc. reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and co., Inc.
Copyright 1995 © by Gay Courter
Electronic Edition Copyright 2010 © by Gay Courter
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
Published in electronic form by Egret E-Book Editions, Crystal River, Florida
For information contact
www.gaycourter.com
[email protected]Originally published in hardcover by Crown Publishers, Inc. in 1995.
Jacket photo for e-edition: Philip Courter
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Courter, Gay.
I speak for this child: true stories of a child advocate / Gay Courter.—electronic edition
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Abused children—Services for—Florida—Case studies.
2. Children—Legal status, laws, etc.—Florida—Case studies.
3. Child Welfare—Florida—Case studies.
4. HV6626.53F6C68 1995
ISBN: 978-1-61750-022-0
362.7”68’09759—dc20 94-20936
For Philip,
who showed me not only how to care, but to love
For my sons, Blake and Joshua,
who taught me how to listen to and respect children
For my mother and father,
who made me feel like the most important person in the world
For my guardian children,
may all their dreams come true
Also by G
AY
C
OURTERHow to Survive Your Husband’s Midlife Crisis (with Pat Gaudette)
The Midwife’s Advice
Flowers in the Blood
Code Ezra
River of Dreams
The Midwife
The Beansprout Book
Contents1
The Girl Who Loved Robert Frost:
Lydia’s Story2
The Stevenson Family3
Who Will Be Our Mother?4
The Stevenson Trial5
The Colby Family7
The Rights of Children