Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Volunteers Work With CASA
SPECIAL ADVOCATES LOOK OUT FOR NEGLECTED CHILDREN
FARMINGTON — Cassady Watkins of Farmington and Jim Lewis of Lincoln serve as the eyes and ears for children who have been abused or neglected in their homes.
Both are trained as volunteers with CASA of Northwest Arkansas. CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate. CASA is a national volunteer based organization that advocates for abused and neglected children in the juvenile court system.
“A CASA is the eyes and ears for the child,” Watkins said. “You are the voice for the child in the courtroom. You speak on that child’s behalf.”
Watkins is married, has a fulltime job and three children under the age of 6. She heard about CASA when she was looking for a place to volunteer outside church.
Lewis worked in education for 28 years as a teacher, principal and superintendent. A former superintendent of the Lincoln School District, Lewis said he wanted to find ways to volunteer to help others. He read about CASA in a newspaper article and thought it was something he could do because of his background in education working with children and parents.
“I first thought it was something I could do to just help,” Lewis said. “But I’m finding it is a vital position. What I’ve found is that it is a huge responsibility and one we have to take very seriously. You can have a huge impact in a very positive way.”
CASA volunteers are required to take 30 hours of intensive training, Watkins said, noting participants hear actual 911 calls and learn about different scenarios involving children.
“Some people do not return after the initial eight hours of training,” Watkins said. “Not everyone can do it. You are not dealing with the ideal situation.”
Watkins was not discouraged by all the information. In fact, she said, “It probably made me want to do it even more.”
A dependency neglect case may
be filed when a juvenile is abandoned, abused, sexually abused, neglected or where the child is at great risk of harm due to parental unfitness. These cases usually involve the Department of Human Services.
The goal of juvenile court and DHS is to reunite families if that is in the best interest of the child. DHS develops a plan to work toward this goal. If returning to the home is not the best fit for the child, then DHS looks for other options.
An advocate is assigned one case from juvenile court and this case will involve all the children in that home. In some instances, one child may be involved. In other instances, the family may have three or four children.
The CASA volunteer stays with this case until it is closed. The advocate’s job is to observe what is going on in the child’s life, talk to people involved and make recommendations to the court based on this information.
Watkins noted that a child in foster care has an average of five to eight different foster homes in a year. A child’s CASA volunteer stays with that juvenile throughout these moves.
Only Constant In Life
Lewis said he believes a CASA advocate is important because that is the one “constant” in the child’s life.
“Caseworkers change and the foster homes may change but we’re the one face that’s constant,” he said.
Many of these children have trust issues, Watkins said. They’ve been removed from their homes and placed with strangers.
“So as a CASA, I have to be very cognizant of doing what I say I’ll do. If I say I’ll show up for lunch at school, then I better show up,” she said.
As a court appointed advocate, Watkins and Lewis have legal access to all records involving the child. These records can include medical records, school records and court records. The advocates will speak with the child, the parents, the foster parents, teachers, anyone involved in the child’s life.
They then submit a report to the juvenile court every three months on how the child is doing. At times, an advocate may testify in court on the child’s behalf but neither Watkins nor Lewis has had to testify yet in court.
Watkins has volunteered for four years and had three cases during that time. Her first case was an 8-year-old girl. Her second involved two sisters, a 10-year- old and 14-year-old.
She’s been with her third case for almost two years. This girl is now 16 and has been in three foster homes. She’s in the process of being adopted by a relative.
Lewis has been an advocate for more than one year and had one case. Two young children, removed from their home, have now been adopted by their grandmother.
The hardest part of being a CASA volunteer, Lewis said, is when parents do not try to follow the court’s plan to reunite the family.
“I can’t imagine parents not taking the steps necessary to keep their children,” Lewis said. “That was hard to get my hands around.”
For Watkins, one of the hardest aspects of being a volunteer is learning what is considered “efficient level of care.”
Advocates are taught that an efficient level of care provides the child with food, water, clothing and shelter.
“This standard of care is not what we all want it to be. That’s been very hard for me...it still is hard. I’m a lot better with it,” she said.
CASA Volunteers
CASA of NWA has 122 volunteers who serve cases in Washington, Madison, Carroll and Benton counties, according to Arbor Buchanan, training specialist and advocate supervisor.
Ideally, CASA would like to have an advocate assigned to every dependency neglect case in juvenile court but more volunteers are needed, she said.
In 2012, 388 juveniles were in care and CASA served 183 cases. About 60 percent of the cases have a CASA volunteer, Buchanan said.
Advocates work their own cases but they have a CASA supervisor and support from the CASA office. Each case is different but Buchanan said advocates usually volunteer 1015 hours each month.
This volunteer time includes visiting the child in the foster home or at school, visiting with the parents, going to court, making phone calls and also helping with fundraisers and CASA sponsored events.
Lewis said DHS and the juvenile court system have heavy caseloads and are extremely busy. They are not able to devote the personal time to a case that a CASA volunteer can.
“The CASA advocate has the opportunity to dig in and focus,” Lewis said. “Our focus is narrow, just for the one case.”
Lewis said he’s found that the court, DHS and others involved in a neglect or abuse case are receptive and welcoming to CASA workers.
“They see us as a partner in the process,” Lewis said. “Through communication, we can bring the parties together to get what’s best for the child.”
Watkins said the job is rewarding.
“Yes, it’s volunteer but you are committing to it. You get home and you are emotionally zapped. You really have to keep a lot of your personal feelings and beliefs out of it but at the end of the day, we just want what’s best for the child.”
Anyone interested in becoming a court appointed advocate is asked to attend CASA 101, an informational session that lasts about an hour. This gives an overview of the program and its responsibilities.
If the person is still interested, then the next step is a personal interview with CASA staff. If the office believes the candidate is a good fit and the person wants to continue, then volunteers are required to go through 30 hours of training, which includes three hours of courtroom observations, homework and class time.
When this is completed, the advocate is sworn in as a CASA advocate. They must uphold the confidentiality requirements and then they are assigned their first case.
For more information, go to the CASA website at sobeso.com/casawp.