CASA outreach effort seeks volunteers in GR

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — A meeting was held Monday evening, Nov. 13, at the Glen Ridge Public Library to call attention to the challenges and rewards of becoming a volunteer for CASA, the acronym for Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children.

About 18 people attended and women outnumbered men 5 to 1. Some were husbands and wives. When asked, attendees said they lived in Glen Ridge, Bloomfield or another surrounding community. They came to learn more about CASA. The speakers were Brenda Schwartz and Christine Bagin.

Schwartz, the interim volunteer manager for CASA in Essex County, said the function of the organization is to provide advocacy for foster children in the county.

“There are nearly 2,000 foster children in Essex County,” she said.
This figure was twice more than the next highest county total, which is Camden. CASA represents about 600 of the 2,000 foster children in Essex County.

The neglect of a child can be subtle, Schwartz said.
It could be that the parent does not have enough money to provide the child with food and shelter.
“It’s not intentional but it is a pattern,” she said. “CASA provides a chance.”

Once a child enters foster care, either in a private home or a group setting, there are many professionals to serve them.
“But these people have huge caseloads,” Schwartz said. “They can’t get to know the child.”

This is where a CASA volunteer is essential because they are the one adult who remains with the child until their case is closed by the court. Most commonly this happens once the child is adopted, returns to their natural parents, or ages out.

“I like to describe the CASA role as this,” Schwartz said. “If your child was having trouble in school, you would do anything. It’s no more magical than that.”

She said that volunteering for CASA is not for everyone but volunteers are needed to “break the statistics.” Although the goal of foster care is to provide permanency for the child, Schwartz said 25 percent of the children who leave foster care are homeless after 2 to 4 years. There is a 47 percent unemployment rate among foster care alumni, too.

The training given to a volunteer is a preparation for success, she said.
“The quality of training I received as a CASA volunteer was the highest training I ever received,” Schwartz said. “If you have fear, it’s normal. Just the fact of being with the child is a help to that child.”

CASA volunteers provide “deep information” to the court judge in child-care cases.
The judge will have assigned a case to the volunteer. Schwartz gave an example of this deep information.
The mother of a child is doing course work to get her child back. The CASA volunteer will notice how the child reacts to visits when the mother comes to the foster parent’s home.

The CASA advocate reports what they have observed to the caseworker.
“CASA has court orders to access all records of the child,” Schwartz said. “There’s nothing that forbids CASA from being involved with the birth parent. It’s all situational.”

Bagin said she was “blown away” by the training she received. After 30 hours of training there is three hours of court observation with a supervisor. There is also 10 hours a year of continuing education training.

After the three hours of court observation, a volunteer is given their first case and a supervisor.
“Then you start your monthly visits,” Bagin said.

A volunteer is required to meet with their foster care child once a month.
“You really get to know your child,” she said.

If there is any concern about visiting a child in a “tough” neighborhood, Bagin said the visit can be arranged to take place at a park or the child’s school. If they meet the child at the foster parents’ home, a parent is always present.
Scheduling CASA work should not be a hardship, Bagin and Schwartz said.

“Close to 70 percent of the advocates work full time,” Schwartz said. “Scheduling is based on the advocate’s availability.”
But a volunteer should be prepared to make a 10 to 12 month commitment, Bagin said.

Both women made a special plea: More men were needed to mentor teenage boys. A troubling concern was that at 21 years of age, a person can sign themselves out of foster care.

“Some volunteers often stay with a child all their lives,” Bagin said.
It was crucial, she said, that there were men to help boys get out of the difficult situations in which they sometimes find themselves. Bagin said the rewards can be extraordinary — to attend the graduation or wedding of a boy you have helped become a man.
“The stories are incredible,” she said.

For more information, contact Jessica Earl at 973-622-4831. Or go to the CASA website: www.casaessex.org.