So my first job after college, there was a new program that started here that dealt with courts and it was called Court Appointed Special Advocates [CASA] and we were guardians, they call them guardians by law actually, for children in the foster care system who had been abused. And they really are neglected and they hadn’t really had anybody to speak for them. I was the Director of Volunteers, all were volunteer except for the two paid people, me and the director and we trained them to be advocates, they had to undergo extensive training and then interviews with the kids and everybody involved in the case, write a report, go to court, and it’s still in existence. It’s a national program, and we started the one in Worcester in 1980 actually, and I was there nine years. That was my first experience, and I did enjoy it, I loved the people. They gave themselves, in a very stressful situation with kids and the courts, very frustrating, but I did love it.
Frances Joan Lubin was born in 1938 in Portland, Maine, where she attended both primary and high school. She then went on to Simmons College to pursue her undergraduate degree in psychology. Fran was married in 1959. She then moved to Worcester, where she would eventually pursue a master’s degree in school counseling at Assumption College and become a social worker. Over the years, she has worked as the Director of Volunteers of Court Appointed Special Advocates [CASA] in Worcester, MA, as well as holding positions at many other places such as, Community Healthlink in Worcester, MA, working on cases concerning kids in and out of homes, and then as a School Counselor for Worcester Public Schools. Currently, she is happily married to her husband, has 3 children and 6 grandchildren, and volunteers with her dog at libraries reading with children. She is a part of the WISE [Worcester Institute for Senior Education] program offered at Assumption College and is in the program because she has always loved to learn. In this interview, Fran talks about the different ways being a woman has affected her in her academic life, life at home, and life during her career while working with kids in and out of schools and homes.