People interested in becoming advocates for abused and neglected children are needed for the spring pre-service training class sponsored by SOS CASA of the Flint Hills.
Volunteers accepted to be Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) advocate for the children’s best interests as cases involving them progress through the court system. The training is comprehensive to teach volunteers how to be effective in helping the children. Training includes topics such as cultural issues, how to develop a relationship with a child, how to take effective notes and other pertinent information.
Once a case has been assigned, a CASA volunteer will meet with everyone involved — therapists, teachers, case workers and others — to review important documentation. The CASA volunteer also develops a relationship with the family in general and the child or children, in particular.
“The CASA is considered the expert of the case because of their involvement in the case and the family,” volunteer coordinator Dena Russell said in a news release.
A CASA volunteer will spend about 10 hours a month on a case as it works toward resolution.
The volunteer speaks on behalf of the child’s best interests, making appropriate recommendations to the court and informing the court of the child’s wishes.
“By telling the court what the child wants, whether it is (in) regard to their living situation or any other aspect of their life, the child feels empowered,” Russell said. “Through the CASA, they learn that adults can be trusted. Many times, they do not feel as though even their own parents can be trusted.”
The CASA gives the child something consistent in his or her life and a knowledge that “what they have to say matters,” she said.
The average foster child moves six or seven times while in foster care and often has to move to a new community and be surrounded by people they do not know, Russell said.
Russell said that children supported by CASA volunteers’ efforts are less likely to return to the child welfare system, typically spend less time in foster care, experience lower rates of teen pregnancy, are less likely to go to jail in the future and less likely to become parents of children who also become involved in the child-welfare system.
For more information, or to volunteer, call Russell at 343-2744.