Child abuse is something none of us want to talk about. The thought of a child being abused is abhorrent to all of us. And just as horrifying as child abuse can be, on the opposite side of this terrible issue are the many good things that people and organizations do every day to both prevent and deal with the aftermath of the effects of abuse on children.

One such organization is CASA, or Court Appointed Special Advocates, who is led by their director, Annette Summers. The mission of their organization, according to Summers, is to “train volunteers, citizens, to advocate for the best interests of foster children, so, abused and neglected children in Logan, Scott, and Yell counties. There is also another CASA office that covers Franklin county. We recruit and train these volunteers to serve as advocates / mentors for the children in our area.”

And the need for this type of assistance has perhaps never been greater than it is today. According to Summers, “There is (a great need). Right now, we do not have enough volunteers to cover every child that needs CASA support in our area. Unfortunately, we just don’t have enough. Our goal is to have 100% of our foster children in this area appointed to a CASA volunteer. That is our ultimate goal.”

Perhaps someone who reads this story will be inspired to inquire into the process of becoming a CASA volunteer and coming to the aid of the foster children in our area. I asked Annette what someone would have to do to become a volunteer, and she responded by saying, “The first thing a volunteer would have to commit to doing is going through an initial training with CASA that is a self-paced program. We provide the materials and the volunteers go through a list of online modules that takes an average of 30 hours to complete and also includes court observation. Volunteers also must submit to a background check and interview. We do a short introduction with the volunteers where we talk about the program and give them the opportunity to ask questions. After the training, and after they have completed court observation, they are sworn in as a CASA advocate by the judge. From there, they are assigned a case where they may be assigned just one child, or in some cases, a sibling group. They start out by just trying to get to know everyone in that child’s life. They visit the child once a month, and then they talk to the child’s teacher(s), foster parents, extended family, case workers, and the parents, as well.”

It takes a very special person or persons to take on such a responsibility. Many are intimidated or overwhelmed by the possibility. Summers explains, “They’re (prospective volunteers) are scared to think about court. But if an advocate is concerned about taking a particular case, the court works with them and CASA supports the advocates all the way. Once a volunteer commits to an completes the training process, our retention rate is very high. We have some volunteers that have been with us for over seven or eight years.”

It is a big commitment to become a CASA volunteer advocate. But it can be extremely rewarding. Summers says the volunteers see a need for advocacy. “They see a need for it. Some of our foster children that we work with have had well over ten placements in their lifetimes. They “travel through” foster care, and our advocates are usually the only consistent person the children have through all of these multiple placements.

The ages of the foster children range from babies to teenagers and even some that have aged out of foster care and still need advocacy. We match volunteers with their preferences and how comfortable they are with the ages of children.”

CASA volunteers are not responsible for any legal issues that a foster child may encounter, but they, according to Summers, “usually know about their problems and they become involved in trying to determine what the child needs to succeed in school, to do better in school, etc. Unfortunately, DHS (Department of Human Services) works very hard, but they have huge caseloads and are understaffed. Their caseloads may be 30 children per staff member, where CASA volunteers may have as little as one per volunteer. So, together, we all work as a team to figure out solutions.”

According to Summers, most of their current volunteers have been with CASA for over five years. The agency has 22 current volunteers covering Logan, Scott, and Yell counties. The number of volunteers covering the three counties is spread very thin in relationship to the number of children in those counties needing services. Summers continued by saying, “We basically have about 20% of the need covered in those counties. So, we definitely are short of our goal of serving 100% of the need.”

The average profile of the CASA volunteer varies. “They (volunteers) just have to have a love for children. That’s the main common denominator across all of our volunteers. Otherwise, we have business owners, working individuals, retired persons, couples, retired teachers, retired military, etc.; it really varies.”

It truly is a big commitment to become a volunteer. But it is one that is needed for the future of our communities. Financially, CASA provides mileage reimbursement for volunteers traveling to visit their court appointed child cases. CASA encourages the volunteers to visit their children, and they do not want fuel costs to stand in the way of their visitations. “We don’t want distance for financial reasons for a volunteer to be why they can’t visit their children.”

RNN would like to thank Annette Summers for taking time for this interview and her contributions to a story that needed to be told. We thank her and the CASA volunteers who work behind the scenes to serve children in need in Logan, Franklin, and Yell counties. For more information on CASA and to inquire about becoming a CASA special advocate, their office is located at 366 N. Broadway Avenue in Booneville. Their phone number is 479-675-2641.