Mother’s Day is approaching, and many of the children in Brown, Comanche and Mills who have been removed from their homes because of evidence of abuse or neglect don’t have good memories about their mothers.
While these children won’t celebrate Mother’s Day with their biological mothers, CASA in Brownwood works every day by pairing these children with Court Appointed Special Advocates® (CASA) volunteers to make sure that children are in safe, loving homes, said Michelle Wells Executive Director for CASA in Brownwood.
“As a result of the role that CASA volunteers serve, many of them become parental figures for the children for whom they advocate,” said Wells. “All children deserve strong female role models as they grow up.”
“CASA volunteers become that role model because they often are the one constant in a child’s life while he or she is in the foster care system,” said Wells. “CASA volunteers stay with children as they move from one foster home to another and as caseworkers and attorneys change. They celebrate successes and they are there to help them through the tough times. They get to know the children and they get to know everyone involved in that child’s life – biological family, foster family, teachers, doctors, and so on.”
As a result of their complete understanding of the child’s needs and desires, CASA volunteers are able to make well-grounded recommendations to the court, which makes decisions about a child’s future, said Wells. CASA volunteers’ goal is to move children through the foster care system and into safe permanent homes as quickly as possible.
“These strong and amazing women provide consistency and compassion in a time when many other aspects of a foster child’s life are chaotic,” said Wells.
“There are over a hundred kids in foster care in Brown, Comanche and Mills county but we only have 30 volunteers currently advocating in court for THE children, said Michelle Wells. “We need more volunteers, and not just women.”
CASA volunteers are regular people — stay-at-home moms, retirees, teachers, businesspeople — who make an extraordinary difference by being the voices of abused or neglected children. CASA volunteers don’t need to be lawyers or social workers, they just need to be willing to speak up for children who through no fault of their own have been placed in the foster care system, said Wells.
“As you remember the ways, big and small, that your mother shaped you into who you are today, consider being that positive inspiration to a child who desperately needs it,” Wells said. “Like motherhood, advocating for a child is a tough job that pays back tenfold.”
The next training class for becoming a CASA volunteer for CASA in the Heart of Texas is Monday May 9th at the CASA office in the Family Service Center at the corner of Austin Ave. and Ave. B, she said. More information can be found at www.casabrownwood.org or call (325)643-2557.