Volunteers are trained to speak in court for the best interests of neglected, abused children
By Will Vraspir
Hastings Tribune
HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — Kaye Becker of Hastings decided to step up to help abused and neglected children because she knew what it was like. She had a bad childhood herself and could empathize with the children.
“I wanted to make sure other children didn’t have that experience,” she said.
To that end, Becker volunteered to join CASA of South Central Nebraska about 25 years ago.
CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate. CASA volunteers are trained to speak in court for the best interests of abused and neglected children who are removed from the home by child welfare services. A judge in the case can appoint a CASA volunteer to the case and that person provides an unbiased report to help the court make a sound decision about the child’s future.
CASA of South Central Nebraska covers Adams, Clay, Nuckolls and Webster counties.
The Hastings Tribune reports that Becker is the longest standing volunteer at the local agency, having attended the second class of training for volunteers since the program started in Hastings.
“When you think you’ve seen it all, your next case shows you something new,” she said.
RuAnn Root, executive director of CASA of South Central Nebraska, wanted to recognize volunteers like Becker and chose April 9 as CASA Day to spread word about the organization. People supporting the cause will wear shirts to help raise awareness of the agency and its volunteers.
April is National Volunteer Month and National Child Abuse Prevention Month, two causes dear to the heart of the organization.
Root said that without volunteers like Becker, the CASA program wouldn’t be possible.
“We just wanted to pick a day to recognize the work our CASAs do to help children,” she said.
Another volunteer, Laura Deininger of Hastings, got involved about three years ago because she is passionate about helping children.
“I think it’s my purpose in life,” she said.
After she retired from her job at Healthy Beginnings, Deininger said she wanted to continue being involved in children’s lives and felt CASA was a great way to do that.
She doesn’t agree with people who say they don’t have enough time to volunteer.
“Look at how much time you spend on the phone every day,” she said. “You can give that to a child. To me, what would be a better thing to do than to help a child who’s been traumatized?”
And there is definitely a need. There’s usually a waiting list for children who have cases pending but are in need of a volunteer available for the judge to appoint.
“I don’t think people in the community realize how much it happens,” Deininger said. “The conditions these children live under is unbelievable.”
But that’s not to say CASAs are trying to remove children from a home.
Each home placement case is as unique as the child involved. A CASA volunteer talks with the child and works with the parents to determine the child’s best interests. Sometimes, it is to stay with the parents after they have received services to better care for the child, such as parenting classes. Other times, the best option is to be placed in foster care or permanent adoption. The CASA volunteer makes a recommendation to the judge who makes the final determination.
Becker said children, especially young ones, love their parents and want to be in their care.
“I tell families, ‘I will try to help you all I can,’ “ she said.
Deininger said parents are given the tools to work with, but they have to be willing to put the child’s needs first. She said it can be hard for parents who may have had rough childhoods themselves.
“How do you know how to parent if you haven’t been parented yourself?” she asked. “The hardest part is that parents don’t understand the trauma they cause their children will affect their future.”
Root said families struggling with poverty, domestic violence and mental health often pass those struggles onto the next generation. The most impactful way to help a child is to break the cycle.
CASA volunteers are asked to follow a case until it is permanently resolved. Changes may occur in the guardian ad litem (the attorney representing the child), or the social worker assigned to the case, making CASA volunteers often the only stable factor in an often frightening and difficult ordeal for a child.
Root said part of the training process is finding out whether a volunteer is a good match for the program. She said it’s important for children to have a stable presence in their lives.
Becker said she’s often been in the position of seeing social workers or attorneys come and go on a case due to the volume of cases in the system. She said it’s important for a child to have someone they rely on to be there.
Deininger agreed.
“You’re the stable one they see all the time,” she said. “It’s nice to be that stable person in their life.”
