A Season of Need

As another holiday season approaches, we are again reminded of the needs of children. There are many events that assist children with basic essential needs such as canned food drives and volunteer coat drives, toy drives, and other initiatives which are organized to assist the most vulnerable among us, our children, through the holiday season. However, many of these children are not experiencing the holiday spirit as they are dealing with far more than a child should have to face and issues of which the public is generally unaware. The public does not hear the stories of the Juvenile Officers, Missouri Children's Division workers, and volunteer heroes who help to shepherd these children through these long and difficult legal journeys.

Who are these children? They are children who have been taken from their homes and placed into the custody of the state, mostly into foster care. It happens frequently, and in conjunction with the employees of the State of Missouri who do an admirable job each day, it is the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) who voluntarily play a critical role in the outcomes for these children, for their families, and for the future of the community at large. How do they do this? CASA volunteers receive advocacy training, are sworn in as Officers of the Court, assigned a case, and begin working in the best interest of the child in what is often a long, tedious process to help them find safe, secure, permanent homes where they can mature into well-balanced, responsible adults.

Routinely the cases of children who have been removed from their homes come only second to murder cases as most time-consuming cases to come before a judge.. These cases are sealed, and neither the public nor the media is allowed into the courtroom for the proceedings. The process consists of many different hearings and determinations, until a final ruling can be issued. Each case can take from a few months to years to resolve.

In each instance, the future of an innocent child is involved and the stakes are high. Children can come into the custody of the state for various reasons. They may have tested positive for methamphetamine or other drugs at birth; their living conditions may be inherently dangerous; their parents may be mentally incompetent or unstable, or have been incarcerated; they may have been left for sustained periods without supervision, nutrition or basic hygiene; or their parents have not attended to their medical needs, or sent them to school; or they may have endured physical and/or sexual abuse. The list is long and appalling.

When a child is taken into custody they enter a legal process that must be meticulous about whether families can be fixed sufficiently to allow for reunification. The child is usually placed in foster care. If the family cannot be rehabilitated to allow for reunification, a guardianship may be considered, or the parent's legal right to the child terminated and the child ultimately placed for adoption. Usually, the system works as it is intended, and the long, hard process of placing the child in the very best circumstances is achieved.

These cases would be even more difficult for the child if not for the CASAs, Court Appointed Special Advocates, whose sole, sworn duty is to help the court by advocating on behalf of the child. Each CASA takes a solemn oath to guard the child's best interests and communicate that view in the courtroom. Due to a focus on the individual child or sibling group, the CASA can find out more information, get to know the child and his/her circumstances and wishes more thoroughly, and the advocate more effectively for the child's best interest to the Court, so that the most informed decision can be made as to the final placement of the child.

What the overburdened child welfare and family court systems need to work better is far more healthy families and far fewer abused, neglected and abandoned children. Until that goal is achieved, people who care about children are desperately needed to come forward as Court Appointed Special Advocates. These children/teens are here in our community, in Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger counties. Last year CASA served 66 of the 250 children in foster care in the 32nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri. This is not enough. We need more people who are willing to stand up for these children, hold their hands, give them direction, and show them that someone cares.

Come into the lives of these children, and make a difference for them in their time of need. This need is not seasonal, it is ongoing, and a CASA can literally change the entire life direction of a young, vulnerable child/teen. Make a difference, not just in this holiday season, but in a child's life.

For more information about becoming a CASA volunteer call Linda Nash at CASA of Southeast Missouri, 573 335, 1726 or email lnash@capecasa.com . Training begins in February.