CASA

A long time ago I posted about the CASA program. CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. CASAs are basically court appointed volunteers who advocate for a child within the foster care system. Foster children seldom have a voice while in the system and unfortunately most of them do not have a consistent adult in their lives to watch out for them while they are being juggled around from home to home. This is where CASAs come in. CASAs help the child navigate through the scary foster care system while looking out for their best interests and recommending to a judge what the best thing for the child is throughout the life of the child’s case.

While in Washington I went through the training and became a CASA. I worked through one case until closure while I was there. I learned, I grew, I cried, I smiled, and most of all I made a difference.

Within months of arriving here in CO, I began looking up the Colorado CASA program. This last week, I started training to become a CO CASA. Because every state has different laws, court procedures, and court reports, a volunteer has to be retrained in every state.
The training here in CO is absolutely phenomenal. I am learning so much. While in training, you hear about some of the ugliest things you can ever imagine. These children see things, know things, experience things, and live through things that I am not even capable of making up. The training truly opens a window into the ugliest part of our world. It is extremely sad, and sometimes it can really start to get to me. But then…there are the CASA caseworkers and the other CASA volunteers. These women (and a couple men), are truly windows into the most beautiful part of our world. I have never met such passionate, kind, caring, heart-driven people in my entire life. It is such a blessing to get to know each and every one of them.

Once I got back from training last night, Craig asked me what I learned. I told him that I learned there are a lot of terrible people out there that do horrific things, but more importantly I learned there are more people out there that are beautifully gracious and wonderfully good. There certainly is bad, but I truly believe there is more good.

“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Acts 20:35