REDONDO BEACH, Calif. – Angela Nichols-Julien was taken away from her biological mom at 2-years-old.

She was age 5 when she moved in with Wende Julien. It was her eleventh placement in a foster home.

“Mainly when I was still in foster care I felt like this isn’t what a child should be living like,” said Angela.

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Wende adopted Angela 17 years ago, but she already has dedicated a big chunk of her life to kids from broken homes.

“It’s sort of 24/7. My job is my life,” said Wende.

Wende is the CEO of Court Appointed Special Advocates. CASA trains volunteers who get involved in a foster child’s life. The volunteers go to the courthouse with their mentee and even give their input to the dependency judge.

“I decided I wanted to be the kind of person who was doing what was right for kids and I wanted to be someone who was doing that in an environment where I could really make a difference,” said Wende.

Los Angeles County has the largest child welfare system in America. Despite the number of shrinking open cases, there are around 12,000 kids who could use a volunteer to advocate for them.