from staff
The Dalton Agency recently announced an appointment and honor for Michele Rollins, the agency’s director of government relations and public affairs. Rollins is an attorney and has been selected by Jacksonville’s Guardian Ad Litem program to coordinate the local arm of a new statewide initiative being rolled out June 1 by Peggy Quince, the new Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court. The initiative is designed to recruit pro bono attorneys to represent children in the court system.
The Florida Guardian Ad Litem program is a partnership of community advocates and professional staff providing a powerful voice on behalf of Florida’s abused and neglected children. Typically, a Guardian Ad Litem is appointed by the court to advocate for a child. Most of these children have been removed from their homes because of alleged abuse, abandonment or neglect. Currently, thousands of Florida’s abused and neglected children go to court alone and every day teenagers in foster care transition into adulthood without the benefit of an advocate. As part of an effort to provide all of Florida’s children with a voice in court, the Florida GAL program needs the help of its local attorney population.
Rollins, who got her law degree from the University of Georgia, will be responsible for overseeing a plan to best utilize pro bono attorneys in the 4th Circuit, including reasonable recruitment and retention goals. Rollins will be charged with devising a plan flexible enough to give local attorneys options as to how they wish to volunteer their time to help children in need. The 4th Circuit encompasses Duval, Clay and Nassau counties, and is one of the twenty counties being asked to institute this new initiative.
“I’m thrilled and honored to be asked to take the lead on this critical effort to represent the children of Northeast Florida,” said Rollins. “As a future attorney, I know that it is critically necessary for our attorney professionals to step up to the plate and give back to one of the neediest groups in our community. We measure our quality of life by how we treat the most vulnerable members of our society, and no one is more deserving of our time and expertise than the children in the Guardian Ad Litem program.”