Bernie Powell at Child Advocates

After retiring from her job at Baylor College of Medicine, Bernie Powell didn’t know what to do with her free time. She explains, "I always thought when I retired I would do something with my Spanish. Almost at that same moment, I saw a clip on TV about Child Advocates and thought this might be for me. I went to an orientation session, took a training course and have been hooked ever since. Over the past eight-and-a-half years, I’ve handled 47 children in 23 different cases."

Child Advocates volunteers are assigned to cases by a Juvenile Court Judge or by the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, a state agency that removes children from homes where they have been physically, sexually or emotionally abused or neglected. "Our biggest reporters of abuse are teachers, doctors and sometimes neighbors or friends who hear or know what’s going on," Ms. Powell says. "Unfortunately, state caseworkers are completely overburdened with work, so we go out and meet every person concerned with a case. We check on the children in school and make sure they get all the services that they need. After the children have been placed in a new home, we meet with the foster parents, spend time with the children and get to know them really well."

The volunteers also have birthday parties for the children they’re helping and make sure they have gifts during the holidays. Ms. Powell points out, "That’s something some of these kids have never had. They don’t deserve what happened to them, and they need to have time to be kids."

Volunteers carefully follow a family’s progress while they are separated, provide reports at all hearings and make recommendations to the judges who decide whether it is safe to reunite a child with his or her parents. Parents have one year to resolve their problems and prove that their children will be safe in their care. If a child is returned, a Child Advocates volunteer closely monitors what happens at home and at school. "Some cases end happily, some don’t," Ms. Powell observes. "It’s our goal to place a child either with a caring relative or ultimately with his or her parents.

"When I first started volunteering at Child Advocates, my husband said, ‘Bernie, you cry when a Randall’s store opens. You cry when you hear the Star-Spangled Banner. How are you going to handle this?’

"I guess it’s the thought that I’m helping these precious children. They simply need someone. But it’s also selfish, because I get so much more than I give, especially when I go out to visit the kids and they all come running to hug me."

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