Pennsylvania - Chris and Carol Green were the guest speakers for the Dauphin County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) monthly volunteer online meeting, at the request of its Executive Director, Will Foster.
The mission of CASA is to recruit, train, educate, and supervise dedicated volunteers to become agents of change for every abused and neglected child from Dauphin County. Through investigating, listening, and involvement in the courtroom as well as the child’s community, a Court Appointed Special Advocates will assist children to achieve their full potential.
“We understood that the CASA initiative is still relatively new,” the Greens explained. “By that we mean, its existence is dwarfed by the massive scope and infrastructure of the foster care system. We told the volunteers that like us in our early years in this community, their presence in various meetings, sessions and encounters may be seen as the new kid on the block. And even though they have an extremely important role to play, and even though they can add value to the system, the challenge is that they may experience awkward moments with social workers, case managers, parents, court officials and many others.”
The Greens offered tips and tools to help the Advocates break barriers in the human service community, based upon the training they provide in something called CARE-Readiness. Then they spoke to the online group from the topic: Three Ways You Can Start Making a Difference that Last.
They concluded the session with a Q & A/ Conversation about Pioneering, Persevering and Staying Motivated as Advocates for Children.
“I felt that our volunteers needed some encouragement and inspiration because they have a very difficult and often thankless task,” Will Foster expressed. “It was great to have speakers who understood what it takes to be effective in the field of human service. I’m very grateful for the way the Greens connected with our volunteers. Our people were fully engaged and came away from the session uplifted and motivated.”
