Chief Justice Quince's initiatives.

• Position: Florida

Fostering Independence Project:

"You bring to that center chair, not only wisdom and legal skill, but a big heart," Bob Butterworth told Peggy Quince at her swearing-in ceremony.

"Every day at the Department of Children and Families we struggle to make something of those children that we see who are in the face of adversity, with all the cards stacked against them. You are all beacons of hope and inspiration for all of them and us," said the former attorney general, judge, and law school dean who resigned in August after fulfilling his promise to the governor to lead DCF for 19 months.

"Justice Quince, you devote your energy to the challenges of children in foster care. Those children and teenagers face abusive or neglectful parents ... a childhood among strangers."

Chief Justice Quince has always had a big heart for children.

"If we can't help our children, the rest doesn't make any difference," she said in 2000.

Now, as leader of the judiciary, she wants to especially make a difference in helping teenagers "aging out" of the foster care system, by urging Florida's lawyers to volunteer as guardians ad litem in the Fostering Independence Program.

The goal is to recruit lawyers to step in as volunteer guardians ad litem when the child is 16 and 17--time enough to forge a relationship and craft a workable plan before the child officially leaves foster care and dependency court jurisdiction at 18 or 19.

Too often when foster children age out, they are dumped into the world with no one. What can happen when a child has no family, no plan, no one to call? Homelessness. Trouble with the law. No job. No hope.

"At 18, you may be an adult according to the law, but you certainly still have some growing to do. Many of these children have no idea of how to even balance a checkbook, let alone go out and rent an apartment, sign a lease, turn on utilities, and do all of those things we expect them to do, when they have never actually been exposed to those kinds of issues," Quince said.

In Florida, of 6,500 volunteers in the Guardian ad Litem Program, Quince noted, only 700 are lawyers--yet lawyers possess the skills to bring to the court's attention issues in the best interests of children.

"People need more than you giving money. And $350 is less than an hour's work for many lawyers," Quince said of lawyers who'd rather write a check than give their time to pro bono service.

"The money is helpful, because it certainly helps the legal services people. But...