EVERY CHILD HAS A CHANCE – IT’S YOU.
Change a Child's Story
VOLUNTEER
CASA volunteers are everyday people – teachers, business people, retirees, stay-at-home moms, and grandparents – who are committed to making a difference for children who might otherwise slip through the cracks of an overburdened foster care system. CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to help ensure that every child in foster care is moved to a safe, permanent home as quickly as possible. CASA volunteers research case records and interview each person involved in a child’s life, including family members, teachers, doctors, lawyers, and social workers. They monitor the progress of the child and family and advocate for the child’s current and future needs in court, in school, and in agency meetings. CASA’s independent evaluations allow the court to make better informed decisions.
Every Child Has A Chance - It's You!
With your gift to CASA, you can help the CASA program both in your community to provide the very best volunteer advocacy for children removed from their homes due to abuse and/or neglect.
BECOME AN ADVOCATE
How Do I Become an Advocate?
- Contact the CASA office to set up an interview: 870.230.1450
- Complete an application and all other required forms
- Provide three (3) personal/professional references
- Complete a CPS background check
- Complete a criminal background check
- Complete 30 hours of pre-service training through the National CASA curriculum
- Complete courtroom and staffing observations
- Be available for court appearances, with advance notice
Requirements Include:
- Must be 21 years old
- Be willing to complete necessary background checks, provide references and participate
Clark and Pike Counties CASA works with children that are victims of child abuse and neglect and have been placed in the foster care system. CASA advocates become the voice in court for these children in order to find a safe, permanent home as quickly as possible. Hopefully, that means the children can return home, but many times, that is not the outcome and an alternative placement has to be found. Those placement options can include placement with a fit and willing relative.
Exactly what does a CASA advocate do?
- Gather information: Review documents and records, interview the children, family members and professionals in their lives.
- Document findings: provide written reports to the courts to present as evidence.
- Appear in court: Advocate for the child’s best interests and provide testimony when necessary.
- Communicate with the child: Explain to the child (age appropriate) what is going on in the child’s case.
- Collaboration: Work with individuals and organizations involved in the children’s lives to come up with solutions to the issues that the child is facing.
- Make Informed Recommendations: Make sure the children and their family are receiving and benefitting from appropriate services and to advocate for additional services when needed. CASA advocates “paint a picture” for the courts of what is going on specifically with the child. They bring focus to the needs of each child and address concerns and make recommendations involving the child’s health, education, mental health, placements, etc.
- Monitor court orders and case plans: Monitor all court orders to make sure the parties in the case are in compliance with the courts findings. Monitor the case plans to ensure that they being implemented and are being followed.
- Keep the court informed: Update the court through court reports and testimony of the progress or the lack of progress toward the goals in the case.
What type of support will I have from CASA staff ?
Have any questions? You can Contact Us!
CASA volunteers help thousands of neglected or abused children in our community get out of foster care into happy homes. CASA volunteer advocates are ordinary people, just like you, with an extraordinary desire to help a child find a place to call home. If you can commit about 10 hours each month to advocate on behalf of a child, then you’re ready to become a CASA volunteer. After completing a training course, you’ll be appointed by a judge to one foster care case involving a child or set of siblings dealing with the issues of abuse and neglect.
CASA volunteers get to know the child and gather information from everyone involved in his or her daily life, including family members, foster parents, teachers, daycare providers, doctors, lawyers, social workers and other relevant persons. You spend a significant amount of time with the child, gaining his or her trust.
CASA volunteers use the information gathered to report to the judge, advocating for the child’s needs while in the foster care system. As a volunteer, you commit to representing a child’s best interests until the child reaches a safe, permanent home.
Children a day are removed from their home and enter the foster care system
Children aged out of the system in 2016 without finding a home.
CASA volunteers served 27,953 of the 48,795 children in foster care in 2016
COMMIT
COMMUNICATE
EDUCATION