UNITED WAY HELPS PROTECT CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

A child removed from his or her home because of abuse or neglect goes into a confusing world of foster care, social-worker interviews and court hearings.

Serving as an advocate for the child in such cases are CASAs, Court Appointed Special Advocates.

CASAs are volunteers who represent the best interest of abused and neglected children in court, making sure the child does not get lost in the system.

"What we do is serve as an advocate for the child, making recommendations to the court on what's in the child's best interest," said Pam Jenkins, director of CASA of Southeast Missouri Inc., which serves the 32nd Judicial Circuit of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry counties.

CASA is among 25 agencies that receive funding from United Way, which is in the midst of its annual fund-raising campaign. As of Wednesday, the campaign had raised more than $108,000, about 14.5 percent of its goal of $750,000.

"The majority of our funding comes from United Way," Jenkins said. "It keeps us running."

Those funds pay for the director's salary, rent and utilities. But most of the work done by the agency is done by its volunteers, who are trained in courtroom procedure, social services, the juvenile justice system and the special needs of abused and neglected children.

A volunteer, called a CASA, is assigned to a case once a child is taken out of the home due to abuse or neglect, Jenkins said. There are not enough advocates for every child placed in foster care to have a CASA, so the advocates generally see the extreme cases. These are cases where Division of Family Services officials see there my be problems with reunification.

"The DFS goal is always reunification of the child with the parents, but sometimes there are obstacles. If DFS sees potential obstacles, a CASA is requested," Jenkins said.

Once assigned to a case, the CASA learns all he or she can about the case and the reasons the child was removed from the home. This includes reading police, DFS and juvenile files and interviewing those involved, including the child, the parents, teachers and neighbors. This is all done to try to determine the course of action that will be in the best interest of the child, Jenkins said.

"We can often find out things others can't because we are not part of the system," said Winnie Seabaugh, a CASA volunteer. Most people are cooperative because they know CASAs are independent and speaking solely in the interest of the child, she said.

But it isn't all "official" gathering of information.

During the first meeting with the child, the CASA concentrates on making sure the child is happy and healthy. The advocate even will try to recover a favorite teddy bear or other item that had to be left behind when children were removed from their homes, Jenkins said.

When there is a court hearing about the child, the CASA attends and files a report independent of those reports filed by DFS workers, juvenile officers and counselors.

All the reports are prepared for the judge who will make decisions about the child, Jenkins said.

Much weight is given to the CASA report, Jenkins said. The juvenile officer may be handling 150 cases, the DFS case worker may have 30 to 40 cases, the counselor may have a number of patients. But CASA has only one case at a time, Jenkins said.

"All our time and effort goes into one case," Jenkins said.

Seabaugh recalled a case with a happy ending. She was the CASA for two brothers removed from the home in a case of neglect.

"You could see that the mother and father really loved their children," Seabaugh said. The parents just didn't know how to care for the boys.

As with most cases, the parents had to sign a written service agreement listing conditions that had to be met before their children would be returned to them.

As part of that agreement, DFS sent a homemaking instructor into the home to train the parents on proper hygiene and housekeeping. Once all the conditions in the agreement were met, the instructor continued to supervise once the children were returned to the home.

Seabaugh said she kept checking on the children until she was sure the situation was suitable for the brothers.

"When you have a case, you come to care so much for these kids," Seabaugh said. "Fortunately in this case, when I saw the family I had a good feeling about them."

Not all cases end in reunification.

"In all the cases the parents say they love their children, but that's not always sufficient," Seabaugh said.

She recalled a case in which the father disappeared soon after the children had been removed from the home, and their mother failed to meet any of the conditions spelled out in the written service agreement.

"It's a serious thing to recommend termination of parental rights. It's hard to do," Jenkins said. "But these boys are better off."

The children are now happy in a foster home, but it took three years, Seabaugh said.

"Three years is a long time in a child's life," Seabaugh said.

Most cases don't go on that long these days. A recent law requires most cases to be settled within 18 months, with either the child going back to the parents or the court terminating parental rights.

CASA averages 25 cases per year, but that caseload has been limited by a shortage of volunteers, Jenkins said. But Jenkins has just finished training a new crop of 14 volunteers, which she said will double the number of trained CASAs available to handle cases.

Anyone interested in becoming a CASA volunteer, can learn more about the requirements by calling 335-1726.

For information on donating to the United Way, call 334-9634.

UNITED WAY

1999 goal: $750,000

Total to date: $108,067