I am a grandmother of 4 and I work remotely for Grace Christian Academy doing academic guidance and College planning for students. I also spend much of my time in Arkansas helping with my special needs grandson who was adopted from the foster care system. I am so blessed to have the time and flexibility to do all of this and serve as a CASA.
The thing that drew me to CASA was my experiences with my daughter and son in law over the past 5 years with many foster placements and 3 adopted grandbabies. Each of the cases were unique and some much harder than others. However, the one thing that’s constant is the need for the children to have an advocate. “A voice just for them”. With so many emotions, confusion and trauma someone has to think from the perspective of the child’s best interest. The children are the victims in these cases, and suffer the most loss. My goal is to do what I can to minimize the trauma and loss for one child at a time.
To those considering CASA it is important to realize that this is not an easy task and many times the victories will seem small and far between, but you never know how your caring for that child will impact the rest of their life knowing that someone stood up for them. Try to think about your own children and grandchildren. How important would it be to know that someone was looking out for them during the worst time of their life? If you think you can do that, you need to be a CASA.