The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘Nothing more gratifying than providing influence and support’
Court-appointed child advocate group expands to Torrington
When a child becomes the victim of abuse or neglect and the state gets involved, they need someone to back them up, to guide them through court appearances and meetings with lawyers and judges.
They also need a friend, a positive adult to advocate for their interests, to give them quality time and let them be who they are — children.
These advocates are volunteers from Connecticut CASA — Court Appointed Special Advocates, which provides its services to the court system’s youngest and most vulnerable population. The Connecticut CASA agency trains its volunteers and supervises them to report unbiased, independent information to the court, in child abuse and neglect cases.
‘The best interests of the child’
Harriet “Kyn” Tolson, a CASA advocate who began her training in 2020, has worked on foster care and protective supervision cases, mainly with children. Most recently, she took on a case with multiple siblings that include younger children in foster care.
Tolson, an East Haddam resident, retired journalist and former executive director of nonprofit literacy agency Read to Grow, said she met CT CASA Executive Director Josiah Brown just before her retirement.
“Around the time I was retiring, he was starting his job at CASA,” Tolson said. “It sounded very interesting. When I worked in journalism, I covered courts at one point, but not juvenile court. I retired in January 2020, coincidentally right before (the COVID-19 pandemic) and joined (a) training group.”
Tolson said she strives to be objective when working on a case, while always keeping the child’s best interests in mind. But it’s not easy.
“I perceived that the work would be an effort to try and present an objective report on what was happening in a case,” she said. “But every case involves
a child or a teenager, and what I held onto was that my work was meant to be in the best interests of the child . ... That’s what I have to think about more deeply. I really have to think about what ‘best interest’ is. It’s subjective.”
CASA volunteer advocates visit their case children regularly to assess their well-being, check in with teachers, care providers and the child’s biological parents, arrange needed services for the child, and submit reports to the court, with recommendations. Those reports help guide the path of a child to a healthy, happier home life.
Most recently, CASA expanded its services to include Torrington family court, which are already provided in New Haven and Waterbury.
A young attorney
Torrington native Eric Krupa, a CASA volunteer and an attorney, joined the volunteer program in 2021. Krupa, who now lives in Portland, works for the CT Legal Rights Project, which assists people with mental health conditions by providing legal services.
“I had heard of CASA when I was working in Maine where I was with a legal services organization doing family law work,” Krupa said. “I was generally familiar with CASA, and when I moved back to Connecticut, I wanted to get involved with a volunteer organization.
“I came in learning about child protective services,” he said. “Almost every case surrounds abuse or neglect, and DCF (state Department of Family Services) has opened a case.
“There’s some concern, sometimes, that (volunteer advocates) are just another part of the system,” Krupa said. “But once a family hears that we’re volunteers, and work with them for the best interests of the child, they see us differently. In many cases, there’s years of involvement (with a family and) DCF, and there’s sort of a general distrust, based on their past experience.”
Since he began with CASA, Krupa has handled one case, and it was gratifying with a great outcome, he said. The case involved a child who was living under protective supervision with one parent, before moving to live with the other parent in another town.
“The child transferred to another school, and is doing really well in the new school system and their home environment,” he said.
Counseling and other assistance is provided as needed, Krupa said, based on what the child or teen has experienced by abuse or neglect.
“Our role is to look into any area where we can be helpful,” he said. “That could mean finding counseling services, extra-curricular activities; it could be talking with staff at the school, or the child’s doctor or therapist. It’s primarily our job to keep the court updated as to what’s going on, but also to maintain a relationship with the child, and make important connections for the child.”
For Krupa, helping a boy or girl in need gives him a sense of fulfillment.
“It feels really good to develop a relationship with a child and really help them,” he said. “So often, kids are really overlooked, and to provide help ... It feels really important.”
Volunteers work with legal, social service and treatment providers, focused on finding or keeping safe, stable and permanent homes for children in the child welfare system. Tolson said judges ask for CASA volunteers when a child’s case is complex and needs more involvement.
“Maybe the case is complicated, or wheels are spinning, or there’s a lot of conflict,” she said. “So the judge says, ‘I want someone to report to the court’ for whatever reason, and the CASA advocate writes up about what they’ve seen happen, what they know is happening and what steps should be taken, based on their work with that child.”
Sharing life experience
Dwayne Jackson of Meriden, who joined CASA in 2020, has handled four cases with a total of eight children. His work with nonprofits led him to a meeting with CASA’s former CEO, who invited him to join the board of directors. But Jackson was intrigued by the organization’s work, and decided he could do more as an advocate than a board member.
“Serving on a board can be gratifying and rewarding, but there’s nothing more gratifying than providing influence and support, one to one,” he said, referring to the children he’s worked with, and their understanding of his role as an advocate.
“Their reaction and response is age dependent,” he said. “Out of the eight children, four were between 10 and 12 years old. That age group, generally speaking, tends to be open and (engages) pretty quickly. They don’t have the sense of wariness or distrust; they respond on how you present yourself to them. That makes it very helpful, to see where they are. So I meet them and they’re pulling out games, showing me their artwork; one played a trombone. So engaging in what they’re engaged in makes a difference.”
Another one of the children was 15, and was “totally aloof,” Jackson said. “I have two kids, and they’re adults now. But I know teens tend to be that way. The other child was 3 years old, and all he wanted to do was have me swing him around.”
There’s no telling what kind of response a volunteer advocate will get when they meet their young charges for the first time. The work can be challenging and even disturbing. But, Jackson said, the successes keep him volunteering with CASA, because of the fulfillment he sometimes receives.
“One thing I sense is that every once in a while, I’ll get a glimmer, that they’re receptive to what I’m saying to them,” he said. “One of my cases has been settled for a year now, and I continue to see those kids; not on the same frequency of once a month, but every other month or so now. It’s a non-CASA relationship.
“The other thing is, in some small way I’m contributing to society, with my education and experience in life,” said Jackson, who is retired from a corporate career. He does that by making presentations explaining the CASA program to groups including DCF employees, assistant attorneys general, and panel attorneys for children and parents. He’s also been a panelist for the ending sessions of several volunteer training programs for advocates, and has appeared multiple times on the agency’s YouTube channel.
Watching CASA grow
Brown, the CASA executive director, is a member of the Governor’s Task Force on Justice for Abused Children. He worked in education, “in the realm of university school partnerships,” he said.
“In spring 2019 I was invited to start a CASA program in southern Connecticut,” he said. “At that time, there were four board members who were all CASA staff people and no one was local. It was a startup activity, and I enjoyed the challenges of learning along the way. I went through the training, and did the first cohorts of training volunteers. Now, we have a small team of professionals who work with the volunteers.”
Brown recruited more volunteers, and in 2021 his agency merged with two other CASA organizations in Connecticut.
“Since then, we’ve been a single organization, continuing to grow statewide,” he said. “Things happened during the pandemic, that created both challenges and difficulties, and we surpassed them.”
He is always looking for new advocates, of all ages and abilities.
“It’s a distinctive role, because even though it’s volunteer, it’s very much a professional role,” he said. “It demands that a volunteer advocate act in a highly professional way, not just being compassionate with a child ... but to work in a collaborative fashion with the court, social workers, attorneys, and then report coherently a case that in the best interests of the child.
“When I say it’s a professional role, but no specific professional training is needed, that’s something to consider,” Brown said. “We’re very much inclusive and we have adults from their 20s to their 70s. Don’t feel that your training or professional background or lack of it will exclude you.
“When our volunteers are appointed as an advocate, they become part of that team,” he said. “It’s a higher standard of evidence, and a much more drawn-out process . ... The role of the advocate is meant to complement, not replace, the work of those social workers and the attorneys.”
A volunteer advocate must be willing to commit to working a case for 18 months or longer. Advocate Tricia Goldburn of New Haven has been involved with the same case, with multiple children, for more than two years. She has helped the children with schooling, summer programs, medical appointments, and to help reconnect them with a parent and the parent’s extended families, Brown said.
Those interested in becoming volunteer advocates can visit www.connecticutcasa.org.