by Jamie Blais

Created on: June 30, 2008

CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. This is a volunteer role in which a person stands in court as representation solely for the child/children in a Child Welfare case. The role involves strict guidelines, which leave the task a difficult one for volunteers. The volunteer must build a rapport with the family that will allow them to feel comfortable giving details that the CASA volunteer needs to make a case before the court in the best interests of the child. The line is fine between this professional rapport and the desire to help beyond the boundaries when faced with a family that is struggling and a child that is suffering.

The role of a CASA volunteer is to gather information from the family and the child (if possible) regarding the situation and then backing this up with evidence from the various agencies involved.

The overriding goal of all involved is to meet the needs of the child/children. It must be decided whether the child's/children's basic needs are able to be met within the family home and these basic needs are set at an achievable level for families that are willing to put in some work in order to keep their family intact.

The CASA volunteer is the only party involved that has no other cases and that is solely there to support the child/children. In this way, the volunteer advocate is able to move quickly towards a resolution, badgering agencies and gathering the information required. The family knows that the volunteer has no other agenda than to see that the best interests of the child are met, there is no bias and no intended result prior to meeting with the family.

Strict guidelines prevent volunteers from become too emotionally attached to the family the advocate must not transport anyone unless with prior approval in extreme circumstances. The volunteer must not provide services for the family e.g. money, gifts, calling people on their behalf and so on. The family is required to show they are able to do things for themselves and are prepared to work for a resolution.

Possible tasks the family may be asked to complete include counseling, attending parenting classes, substance abuse rehabilitation, to name but a few. It is the volunteer's job to monitor their progress and make recommendations to the court that may assist the family in completing these tasks.

The life of a case may last no longer than 18 months and are usually resolved within one year. Swift resolution is important for the children as children view time as much longer than adults. The whole family are in need of stability so having question marks above their lives for a protracted amount of time is certainly not in everyone's best interests and the court is aware of this.

Being a CASA volunteer is time-consuming and emotionally straining but is a wonderful and rewarding way of spending some free-time and will actively change the life of a child and go towards shaping them as adults of tomorrow.

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