In splitting my summer between the White County Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) and a local attorney's office, I was fortunate to be exposed to a balance of legal work, social work, and the community involvement of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). This dual placement provided a great opportunity to evaluate whether I would prefer a career allowing direct client involvement, either as a social worker or an attorney, to one of indirect involvement such as policy or other behind-the-scenes alternatives. Like most Barton placements, it also afforded opportunities for court observation, allowing me to observe both delinquency and deprivation cases.

While the legal community and CASA are both organized at the circuit level (Enotah Circuit comprises four counties), DFCS is organized at the county level, which allowed me to work within the DFCS environment in both counties, as a social worker in White County and as a legal intern on Lumpkin County cases. Working in such a close-knit rural community allowed ample opportunity to meet and interact with most of the child advocacy community that appears in Juvenile Court, including DFCS case managers and supervisors, Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) workers, Special Assistant Attorney Generals (SAAGs) for both counties, CASAs, and many of the local attorneys who represent parents and children. Having been a foster parent who attended court, I had previous exposure to the interactions of DFCS, CASA, and the court, but this summer allowed me to see the interaction between the court and DJJ, who, like DFCS, were consummate professionals. I was impressed by the respect and collaboration among all the professionals involved in the juvenile system. Although the attorneys represent their client's interest in court, they leave adversity in the courtroom and are extremely supportive and collaborative outside the courtroom. I was further pleased to attend a "Lunch and Learn" session where the recently-appointed juvenile judge for our counties met with CASA volunteers to answer their questions about the juvenile process and solicit their input and feedback about her courtroom.

The DFCS challenges came as no surprise, but it is disheartening to experience them firsthand. I had never before been involved with such a dedicated and caring team of people, yet the paperwork requirements leave little time to properly manage and supervise caseloads. As a small example, I handled the paperwork to register thirty children for summer camp. In addition to the individual camp applications, separate applications for funding and scholarships were required, all of which had to be copied and placed in each child's file --- hours and hours of paperwork, copying, and filing to be completed by the case manager. It's easy to diagnose that automation could facilitate and streamline much of the administrative work, yet the realities of the workplace hinder those efforts because the team is constantly fighting fires and struggling to stay afloat, much less get ahead of the curve. Yet, these men and women maintain a consistently positive attitude and doggedly pursue resolution of cases, supporting parental efforts to straighten out broken lives and walking a fine line with the foster families or relatives that have these children where one is expected to care but not to be overly involved. The rewards are great: whether in arranging a summer camp scholarship for a child who could not otherwise go to camp or in seeing the enthusiastic response of a child during a routine home visit, realizing that you have made a difference in a child's life is greatly uplifting!

I think that the greatest lesson of my summer was the awareness that Georgia's policy of family preservation is the umbrella under which child welfare operates. Through legal research of the standard for termination of a parent's rights, I came to realize that the child's best interest is a secondary consideration that is evaluated ONLY after a strenuous standard for deprivation is met. That standard requires not only that the child has suffered deprivation but that such deprivation is likely to continue and will result in profound harm to the child. Thus, even though the state has the child's safety, welfare, and "best interests" in mind, and operates to protect our children, there is an extremely strong, if not irrebutable, presumption that the family unit is to be preserved at the cost of nearly anything except the child's physical safety. It is presumed that it is in a child's best interest to have a parent, even if that parent has destroyed the child's trust through reprehensible conduct. In my mind, this amounts to a position that children do not have a right to emotional and psychological security, which is reprehensible. During my first year of law school, a local attorney said to me that children's rights will be the civil rights movement of this century; I pray that this is so and am excited to think that our generation will have the opportunity to participate.

At the end of my internship, I was fortunate to spend two days at My House in Atlanta. My House is technically an emergency shelter for infants and toddlers; but what it really is, is a lesson in what can be done to make a meaningful difference in the lives of children within a community. A full-time staff (three shifts a day, 365 days a year) and an army of volunteers are raising thirteen children in an atmosphere of laughter, love, and endless encouragement. Donna Carson, the founder and director, has stated a goal that My House be a model for centers throughout the state. My dream is to help Donna develop that model during the three remaining years of my education and to establish a similar center in another community after my education is complete.

One of last summer's interns wrote about Judge Timothy Pape's approach to juvenile law, where he uses "Responsibility Therapy" to create contracts and case plans that require both children and parents to take responsibility for their lives. As the intern pointed out, "a lot of the children and parents who come into the juvenile court do not understand what being responsible means, let alone how to actually do [it]". To me, this is what child advocacy is all about --- helping others to learn accountability where possible, and taking action where it's impossible. My thanks to my supervisors and to the Barton Clinic for the opportunities that this internship provides: learning about the juvenile court process in a safe environment, making meaningful contacts in Georgia's fraternity of child advocacy, and hopefully making a difference in the life of a child.