Northeast GA CASA Holding Informational Session this Month
MJ Kneiser
The Northeast Georgia Chapter of CASA is holding an informational session this month for anyone interested in being a court advocate for children in foster care.
CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate and the Northeast Georgia chapter covers eight counties, including Stephens, Franklin, Hart and Habersham, as well as the Mountain and Northern judicial circuits.
Chapter Executive Director Melissa Mitchell said the need for volunteers continues to rise.
“It’s greater than any time that I’ve known and I’ve been with the organization for about 11 years now,” said Mitchell. “We’ve never had this many children waiting, but right now we usually have about 30 kids waiting for an advocate for all eight counties. It varies by county and changes day by day but for the last several months, we’ve had about that money waiting collectively from all eight counties.”
Mitchell said altogether they currently have about 60 CASA volunteers, but need between 80-90.
That’s why on August 16, a special informational seminar will be held at their office on Sage Street in Toccoa.
Mitchell said the session will go over the basics of what is involved as a CASA volunteer.
“On August 16, which is a Wednesday, we’re going to have a session just to inform people about what we do,” said Mitchell. “There’s no commitment to become a CASA, we hope some people will but we hope others if they come will just know more about us and spread the word. We wanted to do it in the morning so folks could observe juvenile court, we want to give people about 30 minutes of a court room experience and then folks will come back to our office and we’ll have a little breakfast and share what our volunteers do.”
Also known as Guardians Ad Litem, CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in inappropriate group or foster homes.
Volunteers stay with each case until it is closed and the child is placed in a safe, permanent home.
For many abused children, their CASA volunteer will be the one constant adult presence in their lives.
And because there are not enough CASA volunteers to represent all of the children in care, judges typically assign CASA /GAL volunteers to their most difficult cases.
The session is on Wednesday, August 16, is free and those attending are no under no obligation to become a CASA volunteer.
To sign up or get more information, you can contact the Toccoa CASA office at: 706-8861098.