Independent Women's Forum is delighted to announce that Darcy Olsen, founder and CEO of the Center for the Rights of Abused Children, is the latest entry in our popular series of Champion Women profiles.
We first profiled Darcy in 2013 when she was head of the Goldwater Institute. But we wanted to highlight her work at the Center for the Rights of Abused Children. It all started when Darcy felt called to provide foster care for a child. She imagined a teenager. But the social worker begged her to consider an infant. "We have newborns sleeping in social service offices. If you could open a crib, we'd appreciate it," Olsen was informed.
As a result, Olsen went home with a tiny baby, who had been born severely drug-exposed, snuggled in her arms. This baby was the first of four children Olsen adopted and six others she has fostered. In the course of court appointments, Olsen realized that everybody in the courtroom, except the most vulnerable person there, the child whose fate usually was being decided, was represented by legal counsel.
"I couldn't believe that children who had been through the worst were the ones without legal representation," Olsen continues. "I could not imagine how that child could go into a courtroom in a case where their lives were on the line, where their lives hung in the balance of these decisions, and they did not have an attorney to represent or put their rights before the judge."
The Center set about to remedy this. It helped pass a law in Arizona that permits children have a lawyer, and its pro bono clinic represents children who might otherwise be lost in the system. The Center's ultimate goal, to the maximum extent possible, is that children end up in safe and loving homes. The Center also advocates for legal changes, including mandatory reporting of children who go missing from foster care. Darcy estimates that child trafficking could be virtually eliminated with better reporting.
Darcy Olsen is an amazing person. We know you will be impressed by Darcy and the work of the Center. | |
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