CASA volunteers create better life for child abuse victims

The sad truth is that child abuse may never stop happening.
The hope is that more people will get involved in the effort to lessen its trauma and provide a path toward healing.
Toward that end, the local program for Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is rebuilding after a temporary slowdown. CASA volunteers work for the best interest of a child who is in the foster care and court systems because of abuse or neglect. People who serve as CASAs aren’t employed by any organization or agency; rather, they serve as extra eyes and ears for the judge and a caring presence in the life of a bewildered child.
“Every year in America, 500,000 children are placed in foster care and thrust into the court system,” said Kathy Johnson, director of the CASA program serving Pottawatomie and Lincoln counties. “They are victims. They have committed no crime. They have been abused or neglected.”
In February, Johnson took over the CASA program, which operates through the Youth and Family Resource Center in Shawnee. Recently, three new CASA volunteers were sworn in by the juvenile judge, Associate District Judge John Gardner. That doubles the number of CASA volunteers available to help local children, but it’s far from the amount of help that is needed, Johnson said.
In Texas, every child in juvenile court has a CASA volunteer, Johnson said. That’s her goal for this area because every child deserves all the help that’s available, she said. CASA volunteers don’t detract from a DHS caseworker or attorney’s duties, she said, but complement the work that is being done.
“A CASA volunteer stays with the child from the beginning of the case until it is dismissed, or the child turns 18,” Johnson said. “A lot is changing for the child — caseworkers change, lawyers change, therapists change and foster parents may change — but the CASA volunteer doesn’t change. It’s the same person. The child needs consistency and someone to be a role model.”
Anyone working on a child’s case can ask for a CASA volunteer to become involved, Johnson said. She matches volunteers with children based on how they would interact. For example, one CASA volunteer may work better with teenagers while another is better suited for small children. Once the volunteer is assigned, he or she becomes familiar with the court order. From there, the path is always different, depending on the needs of the child, but may include everything from taking the child to a doctor’s appointment to going to a ballgame to connecting the family to services in the community. And the CASA volunteer is always with the child during court appearances.
Sue Dyke of Shawnee, who has been a CASA volunteer since 1990, said she has seen both happy and sad endings to her cases over the years. But the work is always rewarding, and crucial, she said, because children who learn a different way of operating in life are less likely to repeat the mistakes of their parents.
“We are to advocate for the best interest of the child,” Dyke said. “We help the parents if they allow us. A lot of them are without transportation, so I have taken them to check on housing and connect them with community services. We research the family situation and talk to other relatives. Because we are given the court order, it opens the door to finding out information.”
Sometimes that research leads the CASA worker to recommend to the judge that a child is not ready to leave the foster care system, or that treatment requirements are not being met, Dyke said. Sometimes the news is much happier: that reunification of child and parents indeed seems possible.
But there is always a hefty dose of sadness involved. Younger children may not be fully aware of what is happening to them because they have only one definition of normal, Dyke said. Older children may be haunted by abuse or overwhelmed at having to take care of younger siblings. Dyke said she uses a careful approach and gives a child the chance to talk about things as he or she feels comfortable.
“We talk about what they want to talk about,” Dyke said. “Sometimes it just erupts, and sometimes they don’t want to talk about it. It’s important for us to have one-on-one time. And what I tell them I’m going to do, I do it. They haven’t had that before.”
Don Pierce of south Pottawatomie County is among the three new CASA volunteers. He is retired from OG&E and previously worked at the prison in Holdenville. Among the incarcerated, he saw and heard about childhood difficulties that mirror what he sees in today’s court system, he said. He said he believes in intervening sooner in children’s lives and steering them toward a better way of living.
“If we get kids the help they need and educate them, they won’t be in prison,” Pierce said. “Every child should be able to live life and not be in fear. People don’t want to see or hear about abuse, but we have to get involved to break the cycle.”
Four-year CASA volunteer Donna Nash agrees. “I don’t think a lot of people realize the abuse that is out there,” she said. “You step into it and think, ‘Oh my goodness, this is going on.’”
For Gardner, a CASA report is an essential piece of his decision-making process as judge, he said. It provides a third viewpoint that focuses solely on the child’s best interests.
“You’d think a CASA wouldn’t say anything different for the child than the child’s attorney would say because the attorney’s sworn duty is to advocate for the child, but the CASA is able to work with the foster parents, the natural mother or father and the child,” he said. “So the CASA has a much better, in-depth knowledge of the case than even the child’s attorney.
“As long as the CASAs are doing the job in a professional way, their credibility is probably the highest of anyone’s report that I receive,” Gardner said. “I read all the reports, but the CASA reports I read especially carefully because I have come to depend on them.”
The other newly sworn-in CASA volunteers are David Hoffmeier and Janet McClanahan. Rounding out the group is Sandra Prince, a four-year volunteer. Johnson said the next CASA volunteer training is Aug. 25, and she welcomes anyone who wants to directly affect the life of a child.
There is no required amount of time that volunteers must spend with a child, Johnson said, although it’s usually every other weekend or several visits a month, along with court appearances and reports for the judge. The CASA volunteer stays with the child until the case is dismissed, which could mean reunification with parents or the termination of parental rights. A background check is required, along with 30 hours of training and four in-service trainings per year.
For more information, contact Johnson at 275-3340 or kathy@hopehouseonline.org.