FILE - The Juvenile Justice Complex in Northeast Portland, Ore., in a September 2020 file photo. The building houses CASA for Children of Multnomah, Washington, Columbia and Tillamook counties.
Courtney Sherwood
When kids are taken from their parents by the state, they enter the complicated labyrinth of the family court system. Suddenly, a lot of adults are part of their lives, including social workers, lawyers and judges.
Most of these adults are professionals juggling large caseloads. But there are also Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASAs. These are trained volunteers who get to know the children and provide reports and testimony to the judge in their case.
For the latest episode of “At Work With,” we learn what it’s like to do that work from CASA for Children volunteer Dave Anderson.
Anderson is a retired journalist who started volunteering as a CASA eleven years ago. Anderson said CASAs are an important part of making sure that children don’t get lost in the overtaxed Oregon Department of Human Services system.
“I think it’s fair to say that the system is underfunded and understaffed and people do the best with what they are given. But that’s sort of where we come in,” said Dave Anderson.
Why do children need another advocate if they already have a lawyer?
“Lawyers advocate for what the child wants. We are supposed to advocate for what we think is in the best interest of the child. And sometimes those aren’t the same thing. And that can be a little bit tricky with a child, especially like a teenager who thinks they know everything,” said Anderson.
What is the time commitment for CASAs?
Generally, CASAs work with one kid - or set of siblings - at a time, and they’ll stay working with that child until they’ve been placed in a safe, permanent home. They’ll volunteer between two and 10 hours a week. When they’ve been assigned a new case, they have to get up to speed quickly.
“There’s a steep learning curve in every case to start out with. You want to talk to the children. You want to talk to the parents, the lawyers, if there’s any therapists, teachers, doctors,” said Dave Anderson. “Sometimes you’ll be handed a file that’s inches thick.”
But Anderson said getting to know the kids and building trust is the most important part of the work. Sometimes, the children might have complicated or difficult needs, but often what they ask for is surprisingly simple. Anderson, a rare male CASA volunteer, gets mostly assigned boys. Playing basketball or chess is a standard request from the children he works with. It can be “hard to develop some rapport sometimes with teenagers,” said Anderson. “But you just have to approach them on their terms.”
“We are required at a minimum to go and see the children once every 30 days to make sure they’re healthy, not being abused either emotionally or physically. That everything is going okay. I try to go more often than that. But a typical visit is just going, seeing the kids, chatting with them and playing basketball for half an hour and then playing chess for half an hour and then talking with them a little bit,” he said.
When the state recommends removing a child from parental care, how often does CASA disagree?
“I’m not beholden to anybody in that courtroom except the children. That’s my sole focus,” said Anderson. ”Judges I’ve found are very, very appreciative of the work that we do. [The judges] almost take what we more seriously that what any other of the parties in the courtroom say.”
In one of the cases that Anderson is proudest of, “the mom had several chances and just could not kick drugs. She was found living in a box in a Safeway parking lot with her son, and he was removed from her again. He was two years old and sick at the time, so it didn’t look good.”
“She had a couple chances at rehab that didn’t work and I got to talk to her and got to know her pretty well, and the state wanted to change the plan to adoption or guardianship and remove her parental rights,” he said.
“And I said, no, let’s give this one more chance. And the mom and the child were placed in a specific program that was designed for moms with young children who were addicted to drugs. And that worked. And that was one of the most gratifying cases that I’ve worked on because the state was ready to give up on mom. And I was like, ‘no, I can feel that she really loves him, that there’s a spark there that she wants this to work. And thank goodness it did,’” said Anderson.
Do you ever get overwhelmed by working in such an over-burdened foster care system?
“You sometimes think about what they’re going through and that’s really rough, but you are helping bring a little joy to their lives and in the long term you are hopefully bringing the foundation, the stability that they need to truly be happy and fulfill their potential,” said Anderson.
Anderson says the frustration is worth it when he can make a real difference in a child’s life: it’s a small contribution to making the world better. He says there’s no perfect volunteer, there are different skill sets needed.
“Anybody who has an interest in helping kids,” can be a good CASA according to Anderson. In particular, Oregon CASA agencies said they need volunteers who speak Spanish and Swahili so they can speak with children in their native language.
As rewarding as the work is, Anderson is careful to manage his expectations. He doesn’t dwell too long on past cases. “I’m curious about how some of my kiddos have turned out and where they are, but there’s always the next case, and that’s where you put your energies,” he said.
Learn more about CASA volunteering at oregoncasanetwork.org.