by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
The Special Needs of Children Committee of The Jacksonville Bar Association is a group of attorneys who have an interest in children in Northeast Florida who have been involved in the legal system.
Currently, the committee is working on three main projects to benefit children in the area.
The first project is a curriculum the committee hopes will be adopted by the local court system to deal with divorce and its impact on children.
“Right now, I understand that, when you have a divorce in Duval County, there is a mandated course that the courts make the parents take called Children First,” said Jeanne Helton of Smith Hulsey & Busey who is chair of the Special Needs of Children committee. “It is supposed to teach the parents that, in a divorce situation, you should put your own needs behind your children’s and do what is best for the children. This would be a second course that would be designed for children of divorce. There really isn’t anything right now to assist the children who are going through a divorce situation.”
Helton said that project will take longer than her year as chair to complete because it has to be adopted and implemented by the courts, which could take over a year.
“There are some great efforts that have been made and I think it’s going to be a really positive thing for the North Florida area,” she said.
They second project they are working on deals with the Family Visitation and Nursing Centers.
“There are these centers where children are in some situation where the courts are mandating visitation and one parent has to drop the child off and the other parent gets to visit with them,” said Helton. “We are working to restock some of those centers because they are sorely in need of toys or things that adults can do with their children when they are there visiting.”
The third project is the Inside Outside House. It’s a group that operates a home for children who have been in trouble with the law.
“They are not living with their own families and have some serious troubles,” she said. “It’s a group home, and they clearly have a lot of legal needs. Our committee can be there to answer questions for the youths. It makes the children in the home feel special to know that someone takes an interest in them, and hopefully they can be turned around that way.”
The committee focuses on any children who have needs that are not being met.
“We consider all those as special needs,” said Helton. “There are many children in North Florida that have needs regarding their education who need tutorial assistance. We are working with the Duval County Schools to create a tutorial program for them. Or if a child just needs some basic time to understand what is happening to their family in a divorce setting or in a domestic dispute situation, we are attempting to at least be available to, if nothing else, be a resource to direct them to places in Jacksonville that we know that can provide those services.”
Helton said the purpose of the section is to improve the daily lives of children in North Florida. There are 22 members on the committee, and they are meeting about every six weeks.
“We are pretty active,” she said. “We have subcommittees that are devoted to each of the projects, and we receive reports from the point person for that specific project. We then get input from other people on the committee.”
Helton said everyone on her committee has a genuine interest in children.
“That’s why our group is so great, because everyone on the committee has a genuine desire to be around children and to really improve their lives,” said Helton.
Helton’s responsibility as chair is to make sure the group is actively pursuing projects that will enhance the lives of children.