CASA restructures, adds four board members
Over the past year, Court Appointed Special Advocates has experienced a few major changes in its leadership, requiring a restructuring plan that includes the recruitment of four new board members as the organization moves forward in its mission to advocate for local children in foster care.
Last November, CASA changed its executive director, and the following month a founding board member, retired Judge Vicki Cook, passed away.
CASA board President Yvonne Dooley-Smith said the organization is now undergoing a necessary restructure to continue to act as advocates for the nearly 100 children in foster care it serves in Garland, Hot Spring and Grant counties. Part of this restructure includes adding four new board members: Kim Qualls, Bill Cooley, Patricia Moore and Tristan Taylor.
These four will be adding their voices to CASA’s leadership in the years to come, helping reach goals like acquiring more funding and volunteers.
“More funding will allow us to train more volunteer advocates, and that’s our goal,” Dooley-Smith said. “There are so many children in foster care right now, but our goal is to be able to do fundraisers so we can reach out and obtain volunteers to help with some of the caseload of the foster children, and this would help us to get (volunteers) training (and) materials for training.”
CASA currently has 28 volunteers, but she said it would be ideal to have one volunteer for each child they see, which is about 79-100.
Qualls and Cooley are both bringing ideas to their new positions on the board to help increase
CASA’s funding.
Qualls is the grants director for Arkansas Early learning, the largest Head Start organization in the state. She plans to utilize her skills in grant writing to help CASA obtain more grants.
“I’ve been a grant writer since like 1998, so a little over 20 years, and I feel like that’s a place I can bring some expertise and some strength,” Qualls said.
“I’ve seen and watched the program over the years,” she said, “and it’s just such a fundamental program, and we’ve had so many changes, especially with Vicki Cook passing away; I just wanted to make sure the program stays in our county, and it doesn’t just sort of dissolve. So we just want to make sure that it has that continued support that it needs to keep growing.”
Cooley, who is a retired captain from the Hot Springs Police Department, said he hopes to bring some “fresh ideas” for fundraising. He said his wife was affiliated with CASA for about 10 years, and he helped with some of the organization’s fundraisers during that time.
“I was born and raised in Hot Springs,” Cooley said. “I spent almost 33 years with the police department here, retired in 2010; I’ve had experience dealing with situations with kids. I have been a Realtor since 2010. … This is, like I said, my hometown and I am wanting to give back as much as possible. I’m used to being in the community and being involved in the community, and am wanting to continue to do so.”
Moore, who is retired from the Hot Springs School District, said as an involved community member she plans to utilize the contacts she has through the school district, her church and through other volunteer organizations like the Arkansas Foodbank and Project HOPE, to recruit more volunteers to CASA.
According to a CASA news release, as judges refer the “most serious” of child abuse or neglect to CASA, one volunteer advocate can spend time with the child building a relationship and ensuring that each child is receiving the support and attention they need while going through the foster care process.
“Our advocates are a powerful voice for children advising the court on the child’s wants and needs,” the release said. “While providing the emotional support and the stability and nurturing every child deserves, they make recommendations to the court that are in the child’s best interest.”
With a minimum of 15 hours a month required, interested volunteers can sign up by calling CASA at 501-321-9269, or visiting http://trilakescasa. wixsite.com.