I Speak For This Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate

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I Speak For This Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate Page 55

by Gay Courter


  Kelly, Gary F.

  Kingsley, Gregory

  Kingsley, Rachael

  Kingsley, Ralph

  Kirk, Thomas S. (Judge)

  Kirkland family

  Legal Action Project (LAP

  Legal guardianship

  McGee, Bradley

  Mary Ellen (child abuse case; 1894)

  Mays, Kimberly

  Mead, Margaret

  Measure of Our Success, The (Edelman)

  Minimally sufficient care

  National Committee for the Rights of the Child (NCRC)

  National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association (NCASAA)

  National Evaluation of the Impact of Guardians ad Litem in Child Abuse or Neglect Judicial Proceedings (1988)

  NCASAA. See National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association

  NCRC. See National Committee for the Rights of the Child

  Open adoption

  Paddling

  Padgett v. Dept. of HRS (Fla.; 1991)

  Parental obligations

  Parental rights termination

  Gregory Kingsley case

  and open adoption

  Parents

  bonding

  psychological vs. biological

  surrogate motherhood

  Party status

  Poertner, John

  Posttraumatic stress disorder

  Press, Allan,

  Primary parental rights

  Privileged information

  Protective supervision

  Punishment, corporal

  Richardson hearing procedure

  Runaway children

  Russ, George

  Russ, Lizabeth

  Ryan case history

  Audrey (daughter)

  Catherine (mother)

  Lydia (Didi; daughter)

  Mark (brother)

  Stuart (stepfather)

  Schorr, Lisbeth B.

  Secondary parental rights

  Self-esteem, promotion of

  Smith, William Kennedy

  Soukup, David

  Stability, need for

  Stern, William

  Stevenson family case history

  Alicia (daughter)

  Cory (son)

  Jeremiah (grandfather)

  Red (Richard; father)

  Rich (son)

  Tammy (mother)

  trial proceedings/aftermath

  Surrogate motherhood

  Thorndike, Kit (Thorn)

  Colby case

  Ryan case

  Stevenson case

  Twigg family

  UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

  U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect

  Walsh, Adam

  Whitehead, Mary Beth

  Who Best Represents the Interests of the Child in Court? (Poertner and Press; 1990)

  Williams rule

  Within Our Reach, Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage (Schorr)

  Writ of Replevin

  About the Author

  GAY COURTER HAS WORKED CONTINUOUSLY IN FILM AND television production since graduation from Antioch College and has produced more than 200 documentary and educational films. She is author of five bestselling novels with over three million copies in print worldwide including The Midwife, The Midwife’s Advice, Code Ezra, River of Dreams, and Flowers in the Blood. Her non-fiction works include The Beansprout Book and I Speak For This Child, and How To Survive Your Husband’s Midlife Crisis.

  Gay has served as a volunteer in the Florida Guardian Ad Litem program since 1989 in which she acts as the court appointed advocate for neglected and abused children. Her book about her experiences, I Speak For This Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate, brought national attention to the cause. She has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Day One, NBC Weekend Edition, and in Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor and other national publications as an expert on these issues and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

  Gay has also received the Child Advocate of the Year award in Florida for her work as a Guardian Ad Litem, the Sharon Solomon Child Advocate Award from the Florida Center for Children and Youth, and special recognition from the Florida Chapter of American Women in Radio and Television, Inc. for her work on Where’s My Chance? The Case for Our Children, which also won an Emmy. Gay received her second Emmy from the National Academy of Arts and Television Sciences, Suncoast Chapter, for a series of public service announcements called Solutions for America’s Children. She has been selected as one of the 10 most admired women in Citrus County twice—in the community service and arts categories. In 2004, Gay, her husband, Philip, and daughter, Ashley, jointly won the Angels in Adoption award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.

  Gay is married to her collaborator in documentary films, Philip Courter. They have produced almost hundred films on child welfare topics and specialize in media about children’s issues and strengthening family. Clients include National CASA, the National Council of Family and Juvenile Judges, the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, and the North American Council on Adoptable Children.

  The Courters have two sons, Blake, a specialist in computer design development and engineer; and Joshua, an ethnographic filmmaker and builder/designer. In 1998, they adopted Ashley, then age 12, who spent 9 years of her life in Florida’s foster care system in 13 different placements. Ashley’s bestselling book about her experiences, Three Little Words, is in development as a feature film.

  Together the Courters continue to work professionally and personally so that other children will not be lost in the system like their daughter was.

  Articles, reviews and updates on the author and to purchase books in print or e-book formats: www.gaycourter.com.

 

 

 


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