CASA

No, that isn't referring to my house (and in case you were wondering, its still for sale but no offers yet. We're still praying though!). Anyway, in this case, CASA refers to Court Appointed Special Advocate. And I'm about to become one!!

I have wanted to be involved with CASA for a long time, but working 2 jobs made it basically impossible for me to commit to anything else. However, when I realize about 2 months ago that my time at AIM was winding down, I finally saw an opportunity to become involved. I'm SO excited!

For those of you who are wondering what exactly a CASA does, the best place to learn about it is on their website here (although they have a long way to go with their website, haha). I will try and explain it as well.

In Philadelphia there are over 8000 abused and neglected kids in foster or kinship care. Those kids are going through a long and often painful court process where there are tons of people involved; representing the case, the law, their parents, the city, etc. However, few of them have someone who simply represents them; who speaks in court simply for their needs and what is best for them. That is where CASA comes in.

My job is to be intricately involved in the case: talking to the child(ren), parents, school, therapists, doctors, family, friends, and anyone else involved and then I will speak in court as to what is in the best interest of the child. That's my only concern, the child.

I will also be with the case from the very beginning to the very end. Often times a child will go through several foster homes, social workers (cases get transferred around all the time), even different judges (cases often last over a year, so the child sees a lot of adults). However, they will have ONE CASA worker, a constant face and someone the child can depend on and hopefully grow to trust.

As a CASA, I will only have one case at a time, so unlike pretty much everyone else involved in the case, my time will not be divided. I will be able to devote as much time and energy is necessary to really make sure the child is taken care of and has a voice.

And in Philly, the CASA has a very strong voice. In some cities, every child involved in foster care has a CASA worker. Unfortunately, that's not true in Philly. There are 8000 kids, and less than 200 CASA workers. CASA is pretty new in Philly (only since 2005), so as it grows, hopefully this will change, but it will take time. Since there are so few CASA workers, judges decide which cases they would like to have a CASA involved. So, if we are assigned a case its because the judge really wants to hear what we have to say, which is awesome.

Those of you that know me... doesn't this sound pretty much PERFECT for my personality?!? I'm SO EXCITED!!!

So, I started my training yesterday, and while it is A LOT to learn and I am pretty overwhelmed by some of it, I am even more convinced that the Lord has led me to this. I can't wait to get started! I will be in training until the middle of February and will mostly likely get a case immediately (there is a huge need for CASAs). Actually, I will be sworn in as an officer of the court next week (they only do one swearing in per quarter and it just happens to fall in the middle of the current training, so we get the pleasure of being sworn in before actually finishing out training, haha).

Another thing that I am really excited about is that I will be working with non-christians. I know that sounds crazy, but working for a missions organization or a church for 7 years has kept me pretty segregated from the rest of the world in a lot of ways, and I'm excited to have the chance to work along side people of other faiths and hopefully share the love of Christ with them. In my training class there are 2 other Christians, 2 jewish women, a muslim woman and several others who haven't really talked about their faith. I really enjoyed all of them and I'm SO excited to work with them, and who knows who else!!

Obviously, because of confidentiality issues, I won't be able to talk very specifically about what I do as a CASA on this blog, but as God is already using it in huge ways to draw me closer to Him, I am sure you will be hearing as much as I can share.

As I sat in the training, I just had this overwhelming sense that I was EXACTLY where I was supposed to be. It was a really good feeling...