The families of children involved in Dependency and Neglect (D&N) cases face a long road through an intimidating and confusing legal system. The Court Appointed Special Advocate Association, which helps many of these families by providing volunteer advocates for children, has a relatively new presence in Colorado’s 9th Judicial District. CASA of the Ninth serves Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties by training and supporting volunteer advocates. Its mission is to find a safe, permanent home for every child it serves.
Numerous professionals, including attorneys, guardians ad litem (a person the court appoints to represent the best interests of a child) and social workers, have roles in child welfare cases. But children can get lost in the legal and social service system. High caseloads make it difficult to gather adequate information and can leave children languishing in inappropriate placements. CASA’s voice speaks for the child and provides more complete information to those who make these critical decisions and helps achieve better long-term solutions.
HISTORY
A Seattle family court judge — who was concerned about making drastic, life-changing decisions for children without adequate information — conceived of the volunteer citizen advocate idea in 1977. That idea grew into what is now a network of 950 CASA programs in 49 states.
Barbra Corcoran, who joined CASA of the Ninth as executive director in February, explained that child abuse or neglect is the direct cause of most D&N cases, and the majority involve adults who have substance abuse problems. But the roots run deeper: Adults whose lives are out of control do not set out to abuse or neglect their children; they’re often replaying scenarios they experienced as children.
The 9th District has about 30 active D&N cases at any given time. That may not seem to indicate a sizeable problem; however, most people outside the child welfare system are not aware that the average time for case resolution — from the date the county attorney files a D&N petition to finding a safe, permanent home for the child (not a foster home) — is 18 months. A CASA volunteer stays with a case through its resolution and works with only one family at a time. Corcoran pointed out that advocates have to familiarize themselves with a family’s case history, and that may include hundreds of pages of records. She also said CASA and other advocacy organizations have helped steer the child welfare system to more “front loading,” providing services to help keep families from getting into a D&N situation.
CASA of the Ninth, which now has four advocates serving a total of nine children, seeks to train 10 new volunteers each year and to place an advocate with every D&N child by 2016.
[For more of this story, written by Angelyn Frankenberg, go to http://www.postindependent.com...-volunteer-advocates]
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