New CASA. My coordinator told me to always put "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line. Is that actually necessary when I'm emailing case workers and lawyers?

Was doing some research of nonclinical volunteering to do and came across this. This sounds really cool and would like to do it, just worried about time commitment and court dates (if they're flexible or not).

Has anyone heard of this or volunteered here?

Edit: Thank you to everyone for your response! I am new to CASA and just joined this community!

Hi! I am a new CASA volunteer. I was looking through the thread to try to find ways to organize myself and best keep record. I am very comfortable with using Microsoft (Word, Excel, OneNote, etc) and I am very open to learning better ways to organize myself. I am also comfortable with technology and troubleshooting my own technical issues.

I want to find a way using all these tools I have to organize myself in a way that will benefit the child I am advocating for and also, I saw that some children have a lot of turn-over with their DCFS reps and at times the new representatives depend on the CASA volunteer to learn about the case. I know this is not how it should be but if I am disorganized, I know this will affect the child and their future.

What tools have worked for you? Do you have an example (without breaking confidentiality, of course) of how to organize myself? How to be more efficient without sacrificing attention to the child or attention to detail? I'll take ANY tip/trick/bone - anything!

Thank you all in advance. I truly appreciate you all and admire you all for what you are all doing for our children.

I'm a 22yr old female. I'm very interested in volunteering for CASA. My only concern is I am currently working full time, Monday-Friday. My job is flexible for occasional unexpected appointments, but most of my availability is evenings and weekends. Is it feasible to volunteer while working full time?

What are some need to know things or advice from volunteers you guys have for me?

Edit: if i get the job, what would be your advice? I totally see where I went wrong with that question. Lol I appreciate all of your guys advice for the interview though!

Does anyone else have this issue? I’ve been on my case for half a year now & my youth’s caseworker has never responded to a email, call, or text from me. The foster parents comes to me for everything because DHS in completely out the picture until a court date is near.

Hi Everyone! I am running the Chicago Marathon and Fundraising for CASA. If you would like to donate please click the link, even a dollar helps me get closer to my goal and goes directly towards helping children! https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/MBG

I'm on my third case and I never know exactly what kind of relationship I'm supposed to have with the parents.

My first case, the parents were still together and mom was always the one who responded to me.

My second case dad gave up his rights and I had a pretty good relationship with mom. I felt like a mentor to her, honestly.

This case is new. The mom is so angry and belligerent, I'm unsure how to approach her. She's angry at everyone and I'm not looking to be another person she takes her anger out on so seeking the best way to approach her.

Thanks!

Hello,

Any ideas for resources to pay for a kids gym membership? The one they are interested in has a pool for summertime activity. Dept is not able to pay at this time.

Do any of you offer gifts to your youth on their birthdays? The agency that I'm working with says gifts are OK on special occasions. My youth is about to turn 19 and I'd like to do something nice but practical for him. Any suggestions?

How do you organize case files for large families 8+ family members? Extensive history and reports that need to be considered and managed. Multiple placements including residential. All my other cases have been a few children and I could keep it straight with my notes and memory as well as the online portal, but I’m worried with so many moving parts I need to also have physical copies or a google drive setup to keep everything straight

I have a 14yo girl that I am a CASA for and the cell phone rules and restrictions have me in a tizzy!

She had her cell phone taken away pretty soon after entering foster care (before I was her CASA) for safety concerns related to CSEC. She obviously wants her phone back, but no one will give her (or me!) solid info on when she can have it back or what she can do to get it back. She does have a secret phone without service that she uses with wifi. I want her to have a phone (for safety reasons), but I also want her to have a phone with parental controls (for safety reasons).

I understand her social worker doesn't want to give her the phone back because then she'll have unrestricted access, but she kind of has that now anyway. It seems like social workers aren't allowed to install or monitor parental controls on youth's phones, but if there is no one else that can do it, what do we do?

Has anyone dealt with a situation like this? How can a foster teen get a parental controlled cell phone?

I'm interested in being a CASA. I'm F/65 y.o. and recently retired from a stressful fast paced job in entertainment. I am good at writing, and being persistent and following up, but...I have no children of my own and little to no experience with kids. I've been lurking for a while, and attended an online orientation (the leaders were fantastic) but I'm concerned that I am an awkward fit. Your opinion much appreciated.

I am a college student enrolled full time for in person classes. My degree has a lot of in-person studio classes that can take a significant amount of time outside of class, particularly during finals. I already contacted my local CASA office and spoke to them about potentially becoming a volunteer in a few years as I am not yet 21. I am wondering what it is like to be a volunteer, specifically in the Midwest. Could I do this and still be in a place mentally that is able to be the best student possible? I spoke to my own mother about this and she strongly advised me against it and told me to stick with volunteering at local animal shelters. Should I wait till I finish my degree?

For those of you with Kiddos that have EBT cards.. there are a ton of museums, gardens, zoos, children’s discovery centers etc that offer up to 4 free or under $5 tickets to EBT card holders. Something to do over the summer! You can search them on the website Museums for All.

My youth is placed with a nice foster family. There are a lot of kids, and it's a little chaotic, but he is safe and enjoys it there. Father was just released from prison and in a sober living home. Lots of moving parts, but child not yet comfortable with visits and we are trying to deal with DCS and their visit requirements. Point is, there is a lot going on and in my court report I had the time and space to lay out the whole situation. But in the hearing, I always feel rushed and let's face it, it can be intimidating. Anyhow, foster mom and I have a good relationship for the most part, but she is extremely opinionated and always tells me after the fact that I should have said this and should have said that. And I'm just like, lady, I had 3 minutes to speak and tried to focus on the items of most importance. I thought I did a good job getting my concerns heard, but it's never good enough for the mom. Any thoughts/suggestions?

First time CASA here and I’ve met the child once so far. He is a young teen who is fairly shy. I haven’t had a meeting with the dad but will shortly during one of his visitations and a separate home visit. I don’t know how to handle both of them together or how to guide a conversation that way. I guess I’m just imagining a lot of awkward silences. Does anyone have any suggestions? I mostly need to do this to seem them interact but are they interacting if I’m just asking them questions?

I tried searching the sub for this but didnt find any posts. I have experience speaking with the therapists of my kiddos, but ive never actually gotten a signed ROI for a parents therapist until now and I want to make sure I dont miss anything here. I have a whole list of questions already for an email to her (maybe too many? Like 11 or 12 currently) regarding the mother's progress, safety & stability, protective capacity, etc.

The court date for the year review of this case is next month and the permanency goal has been reunification from the start, however none of us (casa, attorneys, AAL, etc) are on board with the mother being ready for that, ONLY because shes still involved with the FA of one of the kids and hes a horrible angry abusive mess. We all agree that this case needs an extension before a RTM with her, and so I want to make sure I am addressing everything necessary with her therapist to help with this court report and my statement to the judge.

If anyone has any insight, tips, or things they wish they did the first time around i would be incredibly grateful! I've only been a casa volunteer for about a year and a half so Im still a baby lol TIA!

Hey there, all!

I have been a CASA volunteer manager at my location for over a year now, but I am just coming back from FMLA leave and was looking for some insight on ways to improve my visits. I tend to adjust the flow of them according to the child's age, our rapport built, placement's time to indulge me, etc., but often something I second-guess myself on is what sort of activity to do, if any, to help form a connection with my personal cases.

Big winners that I've done tend to be drawing competitions, Uno, and other shorter running card games, but I was curious if anyone on this subreddit has any recommendations for activities they've done with their kids (at any age range) that have been a hit. I like to try to encourage emotional growth and exploration on my visits, so activities that are therapeutic in nature but don't need to be facilitated by a therapist to be done safely are my personal preference. That said, I'll take anything and everything you'd recommend.

Activities that don't require verbal communication but also aren't too messy are also priorities, if anyone has any of those.

Thanks!

Hi all! I have an interview coming up in the next two weeks. I am a full time student but am taking all online self-paced courses. I’d love to get some experience for a dual MSW/ JD degree. Is it possible to be a full time student mostly online and be a CASA volunteer? Has anyone else navigated this?

TIA!

Hi all! I am excited to interview on Monday and take the next step to becoming a CASA volunteer, with that being said, I am a bit nervous and was looking for possible information to potential questions they may ask, just so I can best prepare myself! Also, does the interview require the polygraph test?

Currently working with a 15 year old boy in a detention center. He’s actively involved in a gang. When I first met him I was pleasantly surprised at how intelligent and insightful he was. He seemed well aware that his lifestyle wasn’t leading anywhere positive and that he needed to make changes. He enjoyed reading books about people getting out of gang life. We had many real conversations about how this lifestyle only leads to death or incarceration (which he’s witnessed repeatedly happen with friends of his). He openly admitted that he was recruited when he was too young to really understand what he was getting into and that he never would’ve gotten involved in that life if he hadn’t had the rough childhood that he did. He admitted he knew that he was running out of chances and that the system would be more likely to throw the book at him the more times he ends up back in detention (he’s been multiple times already). He’s also being released into his mom’s care (first time he’s ever lived with her) and his SSP has made it clear this is his one and only shot to make things work with her and if he gets in trouble again he’ll be in group homes until he ages out. Due to all these factors he’d say himself that he knows the time to change is now.

However, now that his release date is getting closer (about a month out) it seems like he’s reverting. During his furlough (released for a few hours) the first thing he did was go hang out with those “friends”. He seems less and less interested in changing and says that he enjoys this lifestyle and doesn’t want to stop. We still have our blunt conversations but when we do it’s more like “I’ll try to stay out of trouble until probation is over” or “not everyone gets caught, I’ll be careful”. It’s becoming really frustrating for me and honestly feels like a waste of time that I could be spending on a different kid. He just seems so set in his ways and I can’t see this ending positively for him. I don’t see that fire in him anymore. And it feels like watching a train wreck before it happens. I don’t want to see this kid continue to get incarcerated (or worse). I want him to enjoy his last few years of childhood and get to experience being a kid for the first time, since he never really had that. I want him to use his intelligence for something positive and actually do something with his life. I keep trying to remind myself that I’m staying on because he never had a chance when he was little and this is likely the only real chance at turning things around that he’ll ever get. It’s just frustrating to see him get dragged back into that life. At least while he’s at the detention center I know he’s not out involved in gang activities. So I’m not even really excited about him being out and having so much freedom to make bad decisions.

Lots of backstory that I can’t really share but has anyone had sort of a parent advocate on their case? In this case child is deeply loved by bio parent but they have significant barriers to being able to care for child. I’m not at all convinced that the parent’s attorney (pro-bono) nor the dependency case manager are being helpful here. This feels like reunification could/should occur here if we just provided the bio parent with the same services that we provide the foster family 😑 which we are not doing. Im clearly writing in my JRs that the parent was expected to care for this child without the complex services that we have provided in foster care. Bio parent really needs someone on her team who can DEMAND equity. Any ideas? Lots of cultural and language and education and other barriers here.

Meeting up with child and the parents tomorrow for first visit. What are some stable questions and things you swear by for first visits