Helper Sectors: Child Advocates

At Gap Relief, we focus our trauma-informed training and therapeutic services within the career sectors that keep our communities safe, that say yes to hard things, that purposely stand in the fire of trauma so that we don't have to. Those are the helpers we want to serve.

In the coming weeks, we want to spend some time highlighting these different sectors and the difficulties they face in serving their local and global communities.

One of these sectors is Child Advocates. When we work with people who fight for children, we often see this globally, meaning we are looking generations ahead and knowing that our impact to children in their current generation can have systemic change for many going forward. We see these helpers on the front lines of so many things in the community.

While when we say "Child Advocates" and mean those who help kids find stability and safety in their homes (attorney ad-litems, CASA, DCFS, CAC workers, and more), we are also looking at educators and healthcare professionals and others who surround these kids and create systemic change for children in their worlds before the gaps get bigger.

We also see Child Advocates saying yes to some of THE hardest things imaginable. Most of us have a natural connection and desire for children to be safe, but those that are saying yes specifically to fighting for kids are putting themselves in the position of seeing the hardest of the hard over and over again. The personal impact of being in those scenes repeatedly over a period of time is very high, and we want to honor that impact and hold their arms up in the spaces that they are engaging.

These are servant-hearted people who will do anything to protect children, and we want to be the ones protecting them.