
A Message from the Executive Director
Of all things CASA volunteers do for Hunt County children, often it’s the massive task of ensuring these children don’t lose hope.
As you can imagine, experiencing abuse and/or neglect as a child is devastating and dangerous; and yet being removed from the only home and family you have known can often times create even more trauma.
Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) is not involved in the investigation nor decision to remove children from their home; yet CASA stands ready to advocate for the children who are removed from their home, by order of the court, for their own protection.
CASA for Hunt County screens and trains volunteers from all walks of life to become an independent advocate for the children in which the courts have appointed CASA to serve. These volunteers do incredible work to help ensure these children’s needs are supported by all involved in the cases, and that the children’s best interests drive conclusion of the cases.
What CASA volunteers face in their volunteer work are children who often feel unwanted, unloved, and unheard. The children have suffered trauma and experience conflicting emotions. They are children in crisis. The children often feel “what will become of me”. They feel a sense of hopelessness.
Children and youth with a CASA volunteer have significantly higher levels of hope.
CASA volunteers spend many hours with the children, building rapport and getting to know their favorite things, their dreams, and their fears. CASA volunteers communicate with everyone involved in the case and help facilitate services needed by the children, visits with appropriate family members including parents and siblings, and ensure their educational and medical needs are completed. Volunteers give of their time and heart to ensure the county’s children have an independent voice in their court case, and also that their CASA kids know they are more than just a case number. That they are loved and valued.
Of late, some changes within the child welfare system (foster care system) have created a storm of challenges that are affecting CASA’s work and volunteer retention.
First, the Family First Prevention Services Act changed the criteria in which children are removed from their allegedly abusive homes. Basically, it must be an emergency situation before children are removed under court order. This means once the situation meets the criteria for removal, the children appointed to be served by CASA have often lived through continued trauma. CASA for Hunt County is providing additional training and coaching by CASA staff supervisors to support the Volunteers in their work for children.
Second, the conversion of the child protection and casework services from the state Child Protective Services (CPS) to the private contractor Empower (via the Community Based Care system) has created a lag in knowledgeable and functional contractor caseworkers to support the children and their families. So that children do not fall through the cracks, CASAs are stepping up and doing tasks that were not part of the CASA role. The CASA Volunteer role now can seem very much like a job.
The systematic changes in the system have created challenges for CASA which we are meeting head on. CASA is leading the charge to ensure all children’s safety and best interests are at the forefront of each case, that children are receiving the services they need, that family connections are obtained and maintained, that kinship placements are supported, and that permanency for children is obtained as quickly as possible. CASA focuses on helping the county’s children, in which we are appointed by the courts to serve with volunteer advocacy, to retain their hope. Their future is in our hands.
With the community’s support, CASA for Hunt County will continue to provide a voice for the vulnerable children in Hunt County, and help them gain or regain hope, now and well into the future.
— Lori Cope, Executive Director, CASA for Hunt County