The best way we know to welcome you to our page and introduce you to our cause is with a story:
A teenage girl had been taken out of her home and moved from foster home to foster home for years. Her time “in the system” had made her become frustrated and hardened in life, so she acted out and got into trouble, which only made her bounce from placement to placement more frequently. She saw no hope in herself and thought no one else saw any hope for her future either, until a child advocate volunteer came into her life.
As the advocate spent more time with the teen girl and advocated for her needs both in court and in life, the child advocate volunteer saw a brighter future for the teenage girl than anyone else had so far. This inspired the girl to expect more from herself. As the volunteer spent more time with the girl during her extremely long court process, the girl gradually stopped getting into trouble. Noting a change in the girl’s behavior and outlook on life, a CASA advocate supervisor asked the girl why the volunteer had made such an impact on her life, why she decided to make positive changes all of a sudden.
The girl simply replied, “My advocate answers my phone calls.”
As this story demonstrates, during one of the scariest times in these children’s lives, all it takes to change their outlook on life for the better is simply an adult who voluntarily answers their phone calls, or an adult that actually wants to spend time with them. Between moving foster homes, working with DHS staff members that are constantly changing, being interviewed by DHS, lawyers, and investigators, children that have been abused and/or neglected are in desperate need of that one person that they can always count on no matter what else changes. A Court Appointed Special Advocate is that person.
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