‘A multipurpose, walking community lifesaver’
November 25, 2008
By Ari Cetron
Donna Belin to retire after 30 years of helping area families cope with the legal system
Donna Belin has made helping troubled children her life’s work. Now, after 30 years of finding support for children and families and shepherding them through the court system, she’s retiring.
Although the programs she’s pioneered will continue, many familiar with her work say she will be nearly impossible to replace.
“She is a multipurpose, walking community lifesaver,” said Deborah Akerstrom, president of the board that oversees Belin’s programs. “She’s one of the hardest working people I know and completely dedicated to helping families.”
Belin’s career started modestly. She and her husband Rick moved from Wisconsin to Sahalee — where she still lives — about 30 years ago. S
he began by volunteering at King County’s probation office.
She worked her way up and eventually found herself involved in, and in charge of, the Court Mentor Program.
The program takes young adults, typically from age 18 to their early 20s, and pairs them with an adult who can help them navigate the judicial system.
The young adults had been convicted of a crime and often had other problems, such as emotional or chemical dependency issues.
Mentors would help them comply with court orders and also help teach them life skills, like cooking or how to figure out the bus system.
Perhaps more importantly, Belin said, the program allows people to meet someone who would care about them. The mentors were dedicated, staying on the program an average of seven years.
“Our mentors were just incredible people,” she said.
In spite of the program working to reduce repeat offenses, the county still cut funding last year, dropping its budget from $60,000 annually to $6,000 — effectively killing the program.
However, another program is still going strong. Project Smart Turn, around for 15 years, reaches out to children ages 6-18, who are often having problems, particularly with behavior issues in school.
Most often, Belin finds that the families who need help most don’t know where to get it.
So, in this program, she does in-depth interviews with both parents and child. She then can refer them to a program she thinks can help them.
“They walk out of there with a plan of action,” she said. “I would say that 99.99 percent of the kids walk out of my office very positive.”
The program is a favorite in the Lake Washington School District, and she gets many referrals from the district.
One person who she works with, School Resource Officer Stan Chapin, said he, too, would be sad to see her go.
Chapin points out that Sammamish families have children with these sorts of problem, too, and that her work has been invaluable.
“Her care and concern for the community, it’s way up there,” he said, adding that he was impressed by the way Belin was always willing to take on a new client, no matter how many she already had.
“She always makes you feel you’re the sole case and you’ve got her full attention,” he said.
The programs are so popular that she is helping a new group take on the responsibilities, and will act as a volunteer consultant until new counselors get comfortable.
Her retirement will be anything but restful.
She plans to finish work on the Ph.D. she started about nine years ago when her husband died.
And she might have more time to spend with her two adult daughters and granddaughter.
She is continuing as executive director of King County’s Kids Court.
The program she pioneered, a model now recommended by the U.S. Depart-ment of Justice, helps children who are about to testify in court learn how it works.
Such youngsters are often going to be called in cases where they were abused, sometimes by their own parents.
The idea is to let them get comfortable in a courtroom, sit in a witness chair and meet a judge and a prosecutor before the difficult task of appearing in court.
It is that level of commitment that her peers will miss, Chapin said.
“The job’s not getting any easier and the funding’s not getting any better,” he said. “With the economy going the way it is, I bet there’s going to be the need for a couple of Donna Belins.”
Editor Ari Cetron can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 233 or samrev@isspress.com. To comment on this or any other story, visit www.sammamishreview.com.
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