A Guardian ad Litem is a legally appointed, trained volunteer who represents the best interests of children who have become involved in court proceedings, often in cases related to abuse, neglect, custody disputes, and other situations where a child's welfare is at stake.
Guardian ad Litem volunteers investigate a child's circumstances and living situation, as well as their school time and social environment. They provide recommendations to the court about what they believe to be in the child's best interests, including things like custody arrangements, visitation rights, and foster home placement. Judges often rely on this information.
There are more than 500 court certified Guardian ad Litem volunteers in the 20th Judicial Circuit, which includes Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Glades, and Hendry Counties. On any given day in Southwest Florida, more than 1,000 children are displaced due to abuse, abandonment, or neglect in their home. More than half of them under the age of five.
These kids, and the Guardian ad Litem volunteers helping them, are supported by the nonprofit A.N.A.'s Friends. It was founded in 1983, originally as the Guardian ad Litem Foundation. A.N.A. stands for Abused, Neglected, and Abandoned. We learn about the work they do and the world they're in. Click here to learn how to get involved as a volunteer.
Guests:
Jessica Kaestner, Executive Director, A.N.A.’s Friends
Bruce Greenberg, Board President, A.N.A.’s Friends & GAL Volunteer
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Transcript created with Copilot. Please forgive any spelling errors or mistranslations.
Mike Kiniry
This is Gulf Coast Life. I'm Mike Kiniry. Thanks for joining us. A guardian ad litem is a legally appointed trained volunteer who represents the best interests of children who've become involved in court proceedings. Often in cases related to abuse or neglect and custody disputes and other situations where a child's welfare is at stake, guardian ad litem volunteers investigate a child's circumstances and living situation and their school time and social environment. They provide recommendations to the court about what they believe to be the child's best interests, including things like custody arrangements, visitation rights, and foster home placement. Judges often rely on this information. There are more than 500 court certified guardian ad litem volunteers in the 20th Judicial Circuit. That includes Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Glades, and Hendry counties. On any given day in Southwest Florida, more than 1,000 children are displaced due to abuse, abandonment, or neglect in their home, more than half of them under the age of five. These kids and the Guardian Ad Litem volunteers helping them are supported by a nonprofit called ANA's Friends. It was founded in 1983 originally as the Guardian Ad Litem Foundation. ANA stands for abused, neglected, and abandoned. Joining me today to help us understand the work they do and the world they're in is Jessica Kessner. She's ANA's Friends executive director. Welcome back to the show, Jessica.
Jessica Kaestner
Thank you. Glad to be here.
Mike Kiniry
Also joining me in studio is Ana Friend's board president and gal volunteer himself, Bruce Greenberg. Welcome back to you as well, Bruce.
Bruce Greenberg
Good morning.
Mike Kiniry
Do you say gal or G-A-L?
Bruce Greenberg
Gal.
Mike Kiniry
Okay, so I got that right. I wasn't sure. I'd been saying it in my head that way. So Jessica, you've been executive director, I have it right, for about 7 years now.
Jessica Kaestner
It'll be 7 in October. You got it.
Mike Kiniry
Last time you were here three years ago, you guys had just celebrated a ribbon cutting.
Jessica Kaestner
We did.
Mike Kiniry
And you said you were moving into your new identity because of that transition. from the foundation to honest friends. Are you fully settled into your new identity and does the place feel like home?
Jessica Kaestner
I don't know that we'll ever feel fully settled. There's always more kids to serve and more things to do, but we are swimming right along and so proud of our progress.
Mike Kiniry
You're not the Guardian ad Litem program. You are the supporter of the Guardian ad Litem program. Is that correct?
Jessica Kaestner
Well, the Guardian ad Litem, its office now is a state agency. So state budget, state employees. Previously, we really kind of had a very close friendship with them. And thanks to the generosity of our community, we've been able to grow even broader. So we are glad and happy to support volunteers like Bruce that are giving their time with the Guardian ad litem office, but we're also supporting case managers. We're supporting the Children's Network of Southwest Florida. We're supporting teachers and guidance counselors and any professional that's connected to these children. They can access our programs now. So We didn't cut anything. We grew significantly.
Mike Kiniry
Bruce, when you were here last time, you said you've been doing it for eight years. So I guess you've been doing it for 11 years now?
Bruce Greenberg
That's correct. 11 years.
Mike Kiniry
Last time you were here, you said you were working at that time with about 8 kids. Is that about the same now?
Bruce Greenberg
Actually, I've dropped a bit actually down to one child now, but I'm still, you know, active. It's an adoption case and the child has some special needs and trying to make sure that she gets everything that she needs.
Mike Kiniry
How long you been working with her?
Bruce Greenberg
It'll be 17 months since she was born. I met her at about 10 days old.
Mike Kiniry
Is that a long time or is that, I mean, what's the scope of the time you might work with a kid?
Bruce Greenberg
There's legislation that was passed a couple years ago by Representative Roach that requires now any cases to be, it's called a year is a long time in the life of a child. Most of the cases I've had though, perhaps due to complexity or parents taking a while to complete their case plans. Most cases have taken longer than that, though.
Mike Kiniry
She kind of touched on this, but the scope of what you do as a gal is far broader than helping in court proceedings, right?
Bruce Greenberg
Absolutely. I mean, I've gone with this young lady that I'm involved with now. I've gone to feeding therapy sessions because she has an aversion to, it was a texture issue with everything that she was eating. I've been to her pediatric appointments, neurology appointments. She's got a host of issues. And as a support to her adoptive, hopefully adoptive family, just going out to the home and making sure they have what they need, trying to explain the processes involved with becoming an adoptive parent. And they're phenomenal, phenomenal people. In fact, they adopted this little girl's half-brother about three years ago. Same mom, but she had another child, different father. But they got a call on New Year's Eve a year and a half ago or so and said, we've got the brother's sister was just born. Are you willing to take her? And they said, yes, absolutely. Let us give us a moment to think about it. Absolutely. They took her. So they're just amazing people. They had two of their own biological children, but their hearts were large enough that they wanted to take in other kids, especially siblings that had been born into horrible circumstances.
Mike Kiniry
You must get to know foster care families pretty well, and probably you too, Jessica. Is that just a part of your daily life with them?
Bruce Greenberg
Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I mean, again, it's a, I have tremendous respect for them. People say, oh, Bruce, it's great. You're a guardian ad litem volunteer. Frankly, the people doing the heavy lifting are the foster parents, because they're basically turning their lives upside down 24-7 to take on a child that may have some significant health issues or behavioral issues. So yeah, you get to know them pretty well.
Mike Kiniry
From what I can tell, there are about 500 Guardian ad litem volunteers certified or whatever the correct term is in the 20th Judicial Circuit. Do you work with all of them? Do you work with some of them? I mean, what does that work? How does that work with Honest Friends?
Jessica Kaestner
So we take requests from any of the volunteers or the Guardian ad litem office staff so they can refer children to us when there's a need. They can make sure that they're engaged with our heartfelt hangouts, our in-person programming. So all of them as child welfare professionals or certified volunteers can work with us. We have some volunteers. Bruce is a great example that not only is his heart big enough to volunteer, it's big enough to provide a lot of those needs. He spends a lot of money out of his pocket to make sure that kids can go to McDonald's or have shampoo. So we maybe don't hear from Bruce as much as we may hear from another volunteer, but they all are aware of our programming. We make sure that we do outreach to them so that not only can they have us as a tool in their toolbox, but they can make sure that family and that child has the support that our programming and services can provide.
Bruce Greenberg
We've also expanded to kids that are not involved with active dependency cases. Maybe Jess can address that.
Jessica Kaestner
Absolutely.
Mike Kiniry
Is that part of the new transition? Because last time you talked about expanding the scope, so talk about that.
Jessica Kaestner
There's a couple different ways that we've grown. Of course, active dependency, foster children, that's our biggest area of need. But we're also making sure that teens who transition out of care are taken care of. So if you're in a group home, for example, on your 18th birthday, you may no longer meet the criteria to stay there. And you're heading out into adulthood with a life that's been riddled with trauma, especially group home. Kids are there for years. And so we're doing some programming for them, some life skills. We're providing them resources. We just bought clippers for a child to go to a barber school to try to set that path for his career. So we're making sure those kids are supported. Children that are in independent living, so maybe they do extend foster care and they're in a different kind of living environment. We're helping them giving them some stability as they move into adulthood. And then we also believe that we're not doing our job if we're not trying to prevent children from coming into the system. So prevention is a big thing within the court systems now. We don't want the trauma of pulling a child out of a home if it's not warranted. And so there's a whole section of Children's Network and case managers and different people that work. It's called IFST. So it's an intense family therapy. And so there may be a hotline call. There may be a, oh, I think something's happening at my neighbor's house. And they'll go in and they'll go, okay, well, something is happening, but we're not going to pull that child. Let's not disrupt their life. Of course, if that child is in an unsafe situation, that will still happen. But otherwise, they're going to wrap services around that family, which is great. And so we want to do our part. part there too. So those case managers can access our programming just the same. Maybe kids are sleeping on the floor because dad's lost his job and they can't afford beds. We're going to get them beds. We're going to get car seats so we know kids are traveling safe. We're going to wrap around our services just as much as anyone else is to try to give that family a shot at succeeding.
Mike Kiniry
That sounds, that expansion sounds like it really strengthens the possibility of the system around here. Is that a fair assessment?
Jessica Kaestner
Absolutely. I mean, if we can keep families together and if we can remove that trauma life, we're not doing a service to vulnerable children if we don't look at prevention the same way we look as helping a child after the trauma occurs.
Mike Kiniry
About how many kids are you working with currently? Do you have that number off the top of your head?
Jessica Kaestner
Yeah, so between kids that are coming to our heartfelt hangouts, our in-person, you know, happy memories, moments, and our children's needs program and our comfort closet, right now we're at about 1,400 kids.
Mike Kiniry
What do you mean by the happy memories moments or whatever?
Jessica Kaestner
Yeah, so that's new since we spoke last. You know, we've always had a transactional referral program. So someone can come to us and say, the child arrived to their foster placement last night in a dirty pull-up in Crocs. You'd be surprised how often that happens. So we've always had the, they need clothes, here's a gift card, they need a tutor, we'll pay for that, they want to play soccer, great. But we really wanted to add a transformative piece too. I mean, we know that those things are all transformative, but to a kid, they may not remember, I got new shoes for Mana's friends. So we added Heartfelt Hangouts. And so at its core, these programs exist to make sure every child can answer the question, what was the best part of your childhood? What's your favorite memory? And maybe that's going to a Mighty Mussels game or feeding a giraffe at the Naples Zoo. We went to Iguana land. They all wanted to hold these big crazy lizards.
Mike Kiniry
Where is Iguana land?
Jessica Kaestner
It's in Punta Gorda and it is the largest reptile museum, whatever the right word is in the world in Punta Gorda. And so the kids, they rolled out the red carpet for these kids. They got to feed their big iguana's name is Donkey Kong. I will never forget that. These kids love Donkey Kong. He rolls around in a wagon and everybody got to feed him and they got to ride on the back of sulcata tortoises and, you know, just a great day. And those are the things that children will remember. And so we want them to feel joy. We open those opportunities up to the whole foster family. You know, we don't want to say, Okay, Johnny's a foster kid, so Johnny can come. But like in Bruce's case that he was talking about, there's other children in that home. We don't want to say, oh, sorry, only Johnny can come. So the whole family gets to come along. And that foster child gets to feel the normalcy of being out with a family. They get to be around trusted adults. They get to just be a kid. No one at Iguanaland knew that they were foster children. They thought they were there for a group tour. And those two hours, like the kids cling to that when everything else is trauma and everything else is adversity and they have a label on them They just get to be normal. And the other great thing that happens there is we reunite siblings. There's a lot of siblings that go into foster care and are placed separately from each other. And they don't have the normalcy of being around a sibling. We had back to school bash last year. We had these two sisters and they ran to each other at head pins. And we are all like, oh my gosh, how cute. You know, they love each other. Well, we found out They had been through egregious physical violence, domestic violence. They would hide in their closet together to stay away from dad. They had been pulled from the home and put in two separate foster homes. They had not communicated in a significant amount of time. So they come to head pins at our back to school bash where they're gonna eat pizza and play in the arcade. They run to each other and the younger sister says, I thought you were dead. I thought daddy killed you. And that moment allowed them to reunite, to be sisters, and to go bowl.
Mike Kiniry
Wow. I remember last time you told a story about a kid who had graduated and his foster mom or whoever told you the story about how he still had the blanket on his head. gave me that same moment in terms of like you guys are dealing with like the worst things and the best things all tied together. Is that correct, Bruce?
Bruce Greenberg
Yeah, we're trying to create happy memories. I mean, we were at Topgolf a couple of weeks ago and it's kind of funny to watch a five-year-old try to swing a golf club. and not fall off the top level. There's that. But doing that, or we had a pickleball outing the other day through the generosity of the owner of Pickle Rage, trying to create normal activities for kids. We do sponsor soccer camps. If a kid wants to go to a baseball camp, we'll do that as well. So we're just trying to create a happy childhood despite the fact that these kids have come from potentially horrible situations.
Mike Kiniry
Last time you were here, Jessica, you said that the need was greater than the ability to supply the need. You've talked about expanding your services. Where are we at now? Have things gotten tougher or less tough since 2023?
Jessica Kaestner
So I think it's a different kind of tough. You know, we're seeing as we serve more populations, the need continues to grow. And even with the populations we were serving three years ago, the cost of living is higher, the cost of items are higher, even summer camps. I mean, we looked at what we were paying for summer camps last year and we're like, oh my gosh, these camps have increased 50, 60, $100 a week. So the strain on the family is more significant and As such, we're seeing more requests come to us. Maybe a family could pay for camp on their own last summer. They can't now. And so we're seeing more of those requests come in. And our heartfelt hangouts, we're trying to do more and more of those. We're trying to make sure that all the children we serve can participate. And so there's a cost associated with all of that. We're very fortunate that the community so wholeheartedly believes in our mission. It's an interesting time. We're not unlike a lot of other nonprofits in our area where giving is down. We're seeing people not give as often or not give a high amount. We're seeing some of our grant funders maybe not meet their own fundraising goals or change their giving priorities or things that they're doing. Federal dollars are unknown at this point and that's a bulk of our budget. And so we're committed to serving children and we'll figure it out.
Bruce Greenberg
The local United Way has had a shortfall this year as well, and that will obviously affect programs that they fund. So we're not sure as a United Way partner what loss of funding we may get this year as a result of the failure for them to meet their fundraising goals. But as just said, the environment, the fuel prices, grocery prices, I mean, these topics are not new to anybody listening that's paying attention. it does change the nature of charitable giving for people in the community.
Jessica Kaestner
But I think our community always shows up. I mean, we're hearing hopeful things from the United Way. We're seeing that they're chipping away at that deficit. I think that's what's so beautiful about Southwest Florida. It cares about its community. The people in it want to support it. And so that's why I say, you know, we'll figure it out because the community hasn't let us down before.
Mike Kiniry
This is Gulf Coast Life. My guests today are Jessica Kessner. She's executive director of the nonprofit Honest Friends, and Bruce Greenberg is their board president. Honest Friends is what used to be called the Guardian Ad Litem Foundation in the 20th Judicial Circuit. That's Lee Collier, Charlotte, Glades, and Hendry Counties. Guardian Ad Litem volunteers are trained and appointed to represent the best interests of children involved in court proceedings, often for things like abuse, neglect, and abandonment. That's what ANA stands for. They support kids whose welfare is at stake. ANA's friends support them and the kids they're supporting. So you guys are funded entirely from generosity from the community?
Jessica Kaestner
Yeah, we're an independent 501c3 nonprofit. So everything that we do is donations, grants, family foundations, national foundations, but it's all donation based.
Mike Kiniry
And you have volunteers who aren't guardian ad litems. Talk about like the network of support of, if somebody's listening and they want to support, but they don't want to become a guardian ad litem.
Jessica Kaestner
Sure. So when we rebranded, it was important for friends to be in our name because everyone has the power to be a friend to a vulnerable child. And so that looks different. As you said, not everybody has the time to be a guardian ad litem volunteer. So you can come alongside us at our heartfelt hangouts and help us to check children in or walk around a museum with them or or sit next to them at a baseball game. You can help us to work in our comfort closet. We have this large space at our office that has diapers and wipes and hygiene products all the way up to strollers and bed frames. That always needs sorting or hygiene bags need packed. We are a small team. 98 cents of every dollar we bring in goes directly to our program. So there's no shortage of administrative tasks to help with at our office if that's something someone is interested in serving and helping us with. So lots of opportunities to bring skills and passion to our table that does not involve the larger commitment.
Bruce Greenberg
We're also trying to improve life lessons for kids that may otherwise not have had them. For example, We've partnered with Macy's, with Target. Jess, maybe you can talk about the Target shopping for a loved one.
Jessica Kaestner
So we do a program every December called Gifts of Hope, and a child gets a gift card at Target, but the stipulation is they have to shop for other people. We want to teach them that the joy of giving is just as great as the joy of receiving. We're going to turn them all into many philanthropists, right? But they have to write a budget. You know, the little kids have to think about who they're going to buy something for, what they might like, The bigger kids, I will never forget, we had a shopper come through and he said, Miss Jess, I got to talk to you. And I said, what's up? And he's like, tax sucks. And I said, just you wait. But he learned that you can't go to Target with 150 bucks and spend 150 bucks on stuff. So that event is huge for volunteers because we need a lot of elves to make that happen. But walking alongside them, helping to, take your phone out and do the calculator for them, help them to learn what a budget is, help them to maybe sometimes scale back their cart because they get really enthusiastic about shopping. So that's a great opportunity. And you can definitely impart some adult knowledge onto them.
Bruce Greenberg
They get to buy something for themselves. Yeah, we get them more. Of course, but they realize they can't buy Air Jordans for every member of their family.
Mike Kiniry
Last time I talked to you and again this time, it's not like you guys have a list of things you do. You do whatever needs to be done and that might end up like last time you were talking about like equestrian therapy and things like that. So it must just be a constant evolving can we do that? Yes, we can do that. I mean, is that how it works?
Jessica Kaestner
Oh, absolutely. I mean, we say all the time, I'll tell people we're a no, but organization. So if we're telling you no, it's because we're saying, but this place does that or this organization that we partner with can provide that. I'm a big softie, so luckily I have some members of my team that are like, Jess, we don't fund that. But normally it's something that falls completely outside of normal, like, oh, this child needs a spa day, you know, with all of these different things. But yeah, I mean, we We meet the child where they're at. The kids that we serve don't fit into check boxes. They don't fit into black and white narrative. Do we have guidelines? Sure. But we want to make sure they have what they need. We say all the time, trauma doesn't get the final say at our organization. And so yeah, that's constantly evolving. I mean, we just had a case, the Guardian ad Litem volunteer reached out to me and said, before I put in this request online, I want to talk to you about it because it's kind of crazy. And it was an infant. And he was born substance exposed, spent most of his very short life at Golisano Children's Hospital. And no one was able to pay for his cremation when he passed. And so that was a need. Even at the end of that child's life, that was a need. And we funded that and we were able to do some other things for siblings that he had. But There is no black and white list. And as long as we have the means to provide, we're going to provide.
Bruce Greenberg
We have a grandma who's early to mid-70s, and she was receiving treatment, I think, at Moffitt up in Tampa. She had four grandchildren, under the age of seven, all living with her.
Jessica Kaestner
She adopted them, yeah.
Bruce Greenberg
She adopted them, which is a great thing, right? But her car didn't have air conditioning. So, there was an infant and there are three other kids. So we found a mechanic that would replace the air conditioning or fix the air conditioning for her. We created this bridge fund. Everything doesn't fall into a neat little box, but we had some funders that wanted to say, well, yeah, but what if they want to come take their kids to school, but they have a flat tire, they can't afford a new tire. So we get some unusual requests, but if we can fulfill that need and it makes sense to help the children out, then we'll do that.
Mike Kiniry
Last time you were here, you said you had dozens of pictures in your photo thing of all the kids you'd work with. How many more pictures are in there since the family?
Bruce Greenberg
Oh, there are definitely a handful. And I have found that some of the kids that I met when they were late single digits, 9, 10, 11 years old. I'm still in contact with them. Here we are, 9, 10 years later. One's going to cosmetology school, one became a massage therapist. These kids came from absolutely nothing, but we're trying to help them move along. And as Jess said, you've been fortunate, I have some money in my pocket and I've been glad to share with them because I've become for some of these kids a surrogate grandfather that they never had. So if I can promote kids to get education and help them out with, you know, I'm short this month, then I'm glad to do that.
Mike Kiniry
You mentioned Topgolf is one of the places you went. Last time you were here, you said that you didn't have time for golf anymore. Have you played any golf since I'm talking about this?
Bruce Greenberg
Not very much. I had an injury with my fingers, but I was still able to. I'm sorry to hear that.
Jessica Kaestner
But he's neglected to share. He's our golf pro at Topgolf. So he walks all the bays and teaches the kids how to swing. And they all think that he is a professional golfer. So we haven't pulled the wool from their eyes. We're going to keep letting them believe in that.
Mike Kiniry
Don't let them listen to this.
Bruce Greenberg
No, exactly.
Mike Kiniry
If someone is is listening and they want to get involved, I mean, I guess there's two roads. You can, like, how do you, do you start with you if you want to become a certified Guardian ad litem.
Jessica Kaestner
Sure, yeah, we can connect you to the right place there. And if that opportunity isn't what's most appropriate, we can have a conversation about ways you can plug into our mission. But your one-stop shop is honestfriends.org. There's a form there that you can fill out if you're interested in learning more or getting involved. And it'll be me that will reach back out to you and see how we can best partner and fill a need for those people that want to make a difference.
Mike Kiniry
We're out of season now. I don't know how much that matters as much as it used to, but you guys have any events planned for the fall?
Jessica Kaestner
We do. So, well, actually next weekend we've got back to school bash at Head Pin. So we'll serve just shy of 500 kids that day, getting Old Navy gift cards and Staples gift cards, bowling, pizza, getting them ready for school. We'll do a lot around Halloween. We're going to do a costume closet for them to pick out Halloween costumes. After that, we'll be looking at Christmas where we'll do Christmas presents for close to 1,500 kids and then that Gifts of Hope event we talked about.
Mike Kiniry
Any final thoughts, Bruce? We're out of time.
Bruce Greenberg
Jess is a, she's a rock star and she keeps pushing us forward. We're just glad as a board to help support her ideas and her efforts. She's amazing. never runs out of energy and creative as could be.
Jessica Kaestner
Caffeine helps.
Bruce Greenberg
Yeah, and yeah, we're just really glad to have her heading our organization.
Mike Kiniry
Well, you guys are doing important work. I mean, those numbers are just stunning. Jessica Kessner is executive director of Honest Friends. Thank you, Jessica.
Jessica Kaestner
Thank you. Thanks for having us.
Mike Kiniry
And Bruce Greenberg is Honest Friends Board President. Bruce, it's always great having you in the studio.
Bruce Greenberg
Thank you again. Nice to see you.
Transcript created with Copilot. Please forgive any spelling errors or mistranslations.
