History

"A LITTLE HISTORY"
March/April 1995                                            25 YEARS

By Frances Rajkovich,
Director Probate Court Volunteers 1975 - 1989

About twenty five years ago, newly appointed Judge Kenneth G. Mackness believed that assistance from citizens was much needed to enhance the efforts of Probate Court staff in their work with juveniles.  Thus he asked Ann Mapes, the County Juvenile Officer, to contact professor Walter Holland at Northwestern Michigan College, to interest him in arranging his students to be Volunteer Probation Officers.  Soon, this became too much for Ann, so the first Volunteer Coordinator, Sandra Al-Shamma, was hired.  After a couple of years, she was succeeded by Susan Dietrick who after a few months was made girls probation officer.  Frances Rajkovich was appointed January 1975.

At that time, Clarence Clous was liaison from the County Board to Probate Court, and was very supportive of the concept of adults volunteering their time and talents to work with young people.

Fueled by identified needs, the programs grew in spite of resistance from county commissioners who disagreed with Judge Mackness, and from staff probation officers and other professional workers who had to be convinced that volunteers could and would perform valuable and needed service.  Within a few years, our Volunteer Services was strongly supported by both county government and by most colleagues.

From the beginning, Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Department provided support: we used their meeting rooms for orientations/training, and Deputy Mike Imhoff prepared all I.D.s.

With strong support from Judge Mackness, we gave the Grand Traverse Area Literacy Council a home while we were still located in a small office on the 4th floor of the NBT Building and we began a pilot program in collaboration with Child Guidance Clinic, which was the foundation for the Doula Teen Parent Program.  Another "spinoff" is Citizens for Better Care, which began through the efforts of Helen Maitland, to assist with problems related to long-term care of adults:  this pertains to the Court's guardianship responsibilities and was entirely volunteer in the early years.

As we developed, "prevention" was added to programs:  "Learning Partners" and "Court Appointed Special Advocates" are examples of the intense involvements which have often led to long-term friendships.  "Learning Partners" was inspired by the volunteer "matches" that Frances had made, such as when, consecutively, two little girls returned home from foster care, but were far behind their grade levels.  They were caught up by the end of their school year, with just a little help.  The mother of one of these children still contacts Frances after 30 years!  At about the same time, Court Appointed Special Advocates was added.  In the beginning, CASA too, met with resistance from outside agencies, but under the leadership of Ann Mapes became a much valued adjunct to those agencies.

Much effort was expended on obtaining the grant for a Youth Service Bureau, which did not make the transition from federal to local funding in Grand Traverse County, but is still thriving in Leelanau County's Probate Court.

There has been much fine tuning of probation programs, such as Community Service Work, transporting, etc.  Volunteer Services has been responsible for the Consent Calendar, a juvenile diversion program, since 1981.

Linda Fawcett, who had been Administrative Assistant for eight years became Director of Volunteer Services in 1989.

Our Volunteer Services has been, and still is, regarded as a model throughout the State.


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