Children's advocacy group CASA rings Liberty Bell

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by Cynthia Price
Legal News

The court system gets a boost in one of its most deeply-felt missions, protecting children, from the volunteers at CASA, the Court Appointed Special Advocates.

This year, CASA won the Liberty Bell Award from the Grand Rapids Bar Association in recognition of that support.

Each year the Grand Rapids Bar Association gives the Liberty Bell Award “to a non-lawyer or non-profit organization that has made an outstanding contribution to the cause of justice or to advancing public awareness of the Constitution and our legal system.”

Patrick Geary of Smith Haughey Rice and Roegge nominated CASA as part of co-chairing (with Chip Chamberlain) the Law Day Committee. In that role, it fell to Geary and Chamberlain to choose the Liberty Bell Award Winner.

As Geary stated at the Law Day Luncheon April 29, “Court Appointed Special Advocates fills a wonderful role in this community. It’s difficult to think of a more deserving organization than CASA. To be the voice of the child under very difficult circumstances — the most emotional of circumstances — and to step in as volunteers... CASA very much deserves the Liberty Bell Award.”

Accepting for CASA was President of the Board Sigrid Valk-Feeney; Advocate Supervisor Deb Kammer attended on behalf of Executive Director Patty Sabin, who was attending her son’s college graduation in Marquette.

Valk-Feeney said, “We thank Pat Geary for the nomination, and of course the Grand Rapids Bar Association for selecting CASA. But I also want to thank our volunteers. Without our advocates, our organization does not exist. They put their hearts and souls into the work, they do hundreds of miles of driving and as many hours as they have to to learn about these children, to make sure these kids’ voices are heard at the court level.”

According to Executive Director Sabin, the special advocates come from all walks of life. Most of the  108 current volunteers, but not all, have an undergraduate college degree; some have advanced degrees. They are lawyers, retired business people, teachers, and the occasional social worker. Females outnumber males by 94 to 14. They range in age from 21, the minimum accepted, to 76.

About 91% list “white” as their racial designation, and of those about 4% are Hispanic or Latino.

Sabin said she would like to increase the number of non-white advocates to better match the demographic of the children served, but says the advocates are such special people they are generally able to bridge that gap. She tells the story of a 16-year-old African-American male who responded to meeting his 60-something Caucasian advocate with, “What are you going to do for me?” concluding with a nasty expletive; in the long run the two developed a “really neat” relationship which greatly benefited the teen.

CASA’s clients are exclusively abused and/or neglected children who are wards of the court. There are over 800 of those children currently, and CASA is able to serve 203 of them.

The volunteers undergo rigorous screening to see if they have the “determination and heart” to make good advocates, followed by in-depth training: they spend 30 hours in classes, over five weeks, and six hours observing in court. At the end of that training, they are sworn in as officers of the court.

The volunteers look over the caseload and choose their own cases, because “they have to feel it,” according to Sabin. Participating judges’ recommendations weigh heavily in the choices. CASA’s ultimate goal is to reunite the children with their natural parents, wherever possible, though Sabin acknowledges that is a goal not always met. She says, “We generally see the worst of the worst.”

And the advocates’ most urgent charge is to see the case through until it ends satisfactorily. Though the advocates are not mentors, they develop a trust relationship with their children, and discontinuity in that relationship can be damaging.

The average length of time an advocate must stick with a case is about 18 months, though Sabin says that she spent six years on a case she took on before CASA employed her and continued as a volunteer during her off-hours after being hired as Executive Director two years ago. During her tenure, the number of volunteers has doubled.

CASA also employs five Advocate Supervisors, none of whom can take cases, working under the national CASA model of non-paid advocacy.
Sabin says that many of the wards of the court come from homes that are just in need of aggressive services, such as parenting skills education or training on how to stretch their incomes in tight times, decreasing the need for skilled advocates within the court system — but there is still a dire need for more advocates.

The CASA web site, www.casakentco.org, has detailed applications for volunteering. There are three training sessions a year, and the next will take place in September.
 
 

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