For 21 years, helping state’s most vulnerable

TWENTY-one years ago, Joe Crosthwait Jr. joined Kent Meyers and Don Nicholson II, and other local attorneys, on a tour of the Oklahoma Juvenile Justice Center and the Pauline Mayer Shelter. Soon after, Crosthwait was in a courtroom representing a youngster who was in the foster care system, and he’s been doing it ever since as a member of Oklahoma Lawyers for Children.

“These kids need help,” Crosthwait, a member of the OLFC board, said last week. “Lawyers, I think we have an ethical obligation — we certainly have a moral obligation, if there’s a difference — to help people.

“I just think it’s important work. You’re helping people who are vulnerable, and certainly don’t have the resources to hire a lawyer.”

Following that 1997 bus tour, Meyers and Nicholson founded OLFC and began recruiting volunteers. The organization assists with the load of cases that the public defender’s office has, and represents children when the public defender has a conflict when representing a parent or parents.

OLFC’s 400-plus attorneys and 200 non-attorney volunteers work to support kids who are in Department of Human Services custody and wind up in court due to abuse, neglect, domestic violence, adoption, etc. The organization is funded by grants and donations, with its attorneys working pro bono — last year, they provided about $4.6 million in free legal services.

How’s it work? OLFC offers an example of two siblings whose home life was deemed unsuitable by the DHS. The OLFC attorney assigned to the children also worked with the mother, explaining that if she worked diligently and followed DHS’s recommendations, she likely would get her children back more quickly than if she fought the system. The father, who struggled with anger issues when he drank to excess, received substance abuse counseling and other help.

The attorney’s clients were the kids, but the attorney often helped get the parents to family group conferences and other services. The children eventually were reunited with their parents.

That’s the ideal result. Many cases don’t end that way, however, and instead children wind up staying in foster care for years, which can involve frequent visits to court. Or, there may be a need, as OLFC executive director Tsiena Thompson noted at the organization’s annual luncheon last week, to represent a child in a case involving “a DNR for a 9-year-old with heart and organ issues.”

Last year, OLFC began its Educational Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) program where the GAL has particular expertise in helping kids in educational matters — important work considering the toll that dysfunctional home lives, homelessness, frequent foster home placements and other factors can take on these children.

The sad thing is that the need for OLFC is so great. OLFC seeks ultimately to “support and empower children and families … we’re building a stronger system, building stronger children,” Thompson said.

It’s a laudable objective. OLFC is always in the market for volunteers, legal or otherwise, and donations. A visit to its website, www.olfc.org, or a phone call to (405) 232-4453 can get the process started.