Carol was advised to get a lawyer to gain custody of her 9-year-old grandson, who was in the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development, but didn’t know where to turn.
She decided to call Legal Aid BC’s Parents Legal Centre (PLC) in Kamloops for help after receiving the phone number from someone in her community.
“I was a mess. I was scared and upset,” Carol said. “I was worried I would never get him back home.”
As soon as she contacted the PLC, Carol said she felt supported immediately in “every way I needed.”
“It was touch and go for a while,” she explained. “There were a lot of times I said to [PLC staff] that I didn’t know if I could continue.”
“And they would say to me, ‘no, we can do this!’”
It was a slow process, but with the wraparound support of the PLC lawyer and advocate, Carol received visitation rights, and then overnight visits with her grandson.
“[PLC Managing Lawyer] Kim had to fight every step of the way to get our visitations. But she did it,” Carol said. “They knew exactly what they were doing the whole time.”
A year after Carol’s first call with the PLC, she went to court to hear a judge tell her she would receive custody of her grandson.
“It was a wonderful, wonderful day,” Carol said. “I bless every day that I was able to have them on my side.”