In the US, most states have programs that assign volunteer advocates to children and youth in the foster care system (CASA and GAL are the acronyms).
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In the US, most states have programs that assign volunteer advocates to children and youth in the foster care system (CASA and GAL are the acronyms). Anyone with a clean record w/r/t kids can do the training. It’s the weirdest band-aid on a broken system but until we fix the system, it’s also essential work that helps keep kids from falling through some terrible gaps.
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I’ve been doing it since 2018 and I can attest that there is a huge need for advocates, especially for people who are anti-racist and committed to protecting LGBTQ kids, and to maintaining kinship bonds whenever it’s possible to do safely.
Technically you’re a voice for the kid in court but most of my work has been fixer shit: Calling every practice in a metro area until I can find someone to do a procedure, catching missed documents, making a nuisance of myself when the system drops a ball.
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Matthew Lyonreplied to Erin Kissane last edited by [email protected]
@kissane a good friend of ours is going through a nasty divorce w/a narcissist, who in the initial hearing was given almost full custody of their kid & has been poisoning their relationship with the other parent
thanks to the GAL, & some missteps by the narcissist, our friend now has a protection order against the narcissistic parent; may get full custody & other parent may only get supervised visits
I’ve seen firsthand the good these people can do – they’re also tremendously backlogged
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Erin Kissanereplied to Erin Kissane last edited by [email protected]
As you can probably imagine, this work attracts a whole lot of well-intentioned straight white retired women with money+time on their hands, which…it is what it is, culturally and politically. None of this SHOULD be volunteer work, but the professional social worker I work with has literally dozens of cases. The needs are immediate.
So I will say that if you could use a way to make a child or teenager’s life a little safer and more stable in an increasingly scary time, this is a way to do that.
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(Happy to talk to anyone about this anytime, DM away.)
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@kissane Chiming in to say for anyone reading that as a foster parent I have seen first hand that CASA reps are SOOOOO important
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Erin Kissanereplied to Matthew Lyon last edited by [email protected]
@mattly God, there are so many hair-raising stories about this stuff. I’m very glad it looks like it’s going to work out for your friend and their kid.
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I will stop fixing typos now sorry
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Super kind of you, Erin, to donate your time to such a worthy cause. As a parent who adopted my high-needs child out of the foster system, I know first-hand of the program. I'm glad it has been rewarding for you.
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@dangoodin It’s less kindness and more compulsion tbh! We have to help each other. There is just no other way.
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@kissane I will never stop fixing typos. Solidarity.
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Thank you for your service just the same.
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@kissane Great, I’m in! Just signed up for an information session to learn more about how to do this. Thank you for sharing!
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Please holler if you ever want to talk about it, especially if you get into the training and are like…YIKES, SEEMS INTENSE. Our local org has been aces at making good matches between CASAs and kids/cases.
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@dangoodin Thank you for bringing that kid into the center of your life
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@kissane Ex-foster parent here. Can confirm need. And the longer you can stay with a kid as an advocate -- preferably over several foster placements -- the better it is.
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@kissane I'm *really* glad you posted this, I had never heard of this before. I've thought about fostering to adopt someday if I ever want and think I'm capable of taking care of a child, and this sounds like an amazing middle ground if I'm not able to get there with respect to mental health and my own ability to take care of myself.
I'm not able to do this today, but I really aspire to be able to someday
What does w/r/t kids mean here? I didn't see any clues on the site
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@CrisColor Yes! I think this is an amazing middle path for those of us who can't be, foster parents because of health or stability or already having a house full of dependents or any of those things, but who really want to help those kids.
And sorry, w/r/t" is just an abbreviation for "with regard to" because I was running out of characters! It might be obsolete these days.
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I am a retired, white lady with time on my hands, and yeah, even a little extra bit of money because my husband has a great job. You shame me. I already feel unwelcome in organizing spaces. Thanks a lot.
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@FranceskaMann By "it is what it is," I mean exactly that, including both progressive women and the Trump-supporting majority.
Not every child or family that gets sucked into the foster care system will mesh well with the *average political positions and cultural literacies* of this demographic. We need a diversity of advocates, including people who don't think of themselves as part of the volunteer class.
