Forging a Path

Tom Flottman Given Darlene Kamine Advocate Award

11 years | 2 kids | 2 families

About four years before retiring from his work as an attorney, Tom Flottman had been donating services as a Guardian ad Litem in Northern Kentucky. Through that work, he’d learned a lot about foster care and the challenging environments kids can find themselves in. “I enjoyed being able to be a part of the solution,” he said.

When given the opportunity to join a friend of his at ProKids’ annual fundraiser, the Friends of Children Breakfast, he RSVP’d intent to sign up for our volunteer training from the event.

Ever since, he has been a dedicated CASA Volunteer, serving two young men whose early life experiences threatened their futures.

Both charges had been sexually abused as young boys and went on to offend themselves, as that behavior had been normalized. It’d take years of attention and advocacy to help these boys heal, learn, and move forward with their lives. “Part of the message or part of the example is to let them know that there’s another way. That life doesn’t have to be the way he’s seen it,” Tom said.

In his current case, a young man, “Marcus,” is navigating the path to adulthood. “There’s a lot you can do to direct your future,” Tom tells him.

Beyond being a constant and a cheerleader for Marcus, Tom has had a huge role in getting him to graduation. While he’s a bright kid, Tom said Marcus wasn’t always serious about his schooling. Every summer, he’d be doing online work to catch up. Tom did what he could, helping him with algebra and geometry during visits, and somewhere along the way, Marcus kicked things into gear.

Beyond education, Tom has always worked with stability in mind — early on, advocating for Marcus to stay out of a residential center, which ultimately led him to a foster home where he lived for years. In another instance, Tom did all in his power to advocate for Marcus to stay in that home when again a move was considered.

Tom put together a letter drawing on his experience with Marcus and the success he had seen in this foster home. “This was the first time he even had anything close to a normal childhood,” Tom said. He walked to school, rode his bike in the neighborhood, had friends, and was considered family by his foster mom.

Though Marcus has since moved on to an independent living setting — readying himself for a transition to adulthood — he still has a relationship with that foster mom. “He’s her baby,” Tom said.

Today, Marcus is looking toward his future. And while being a plumber sounded good for a while, then an electrician, he didn’t stick with any one thing right away. He’s recently set his sights on becoming a truck driver. He wants to drive around, see the country, and have someone pay him for it.

“I’m not necessarily saying that goal is gonna be his mantra for the rest of his life,” Tom said. But having a goal — something to dream of and work toward has spurred a lot of conversation around what’s possible. And Tom has noticed that in independent living, he is growing up fast. He has to work, shop, deal with everything himself, and Tom is proud.

According to Morgan Zak, his CASA Manager, Tom has been a phenomenal CASA, at Marcus’ side through every step, constantly forging a path ahead.