FORUM: Big Country CASA – The heartbeat of foster care advocacy

MEET THE PANELISTS:

Kasey Leavell – A dedicated CASA Board of Directors member, Leavell has been volunteering for a year, helping children navigate challenging and emotional times.

Rob Davidson – An Air Force veteran and active member of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, Davidson has been volunteering since 2019. He finds fulfillment in mentoring and guiding the next generation.

Jonathon Leverton – Recently sworn in as a CASA volunteer, Leverton brings valuable firsthand experience with the foster care system, having entered it at the age of 12.

Lee Ann Millender – Executive Director of Big Country CASA, leading efforts to advocate for children in need.

What is Big Country CASA?

“CASA stands for court-appointed special advocates,” Millender explained. “As we know, oftentimes, children enter the foster care system because of abuse or neglect. When that happens, the court appoints a special advocate whom we have trained. Our mission is to recruit community volunteers, train them so that they can advocate for children in the foster care system.”

Who are CASA Volunteers?

“CASA volunteer could be your neighbor, anybody 21 years old or more, with a good, clear background, of course,” Davidson said. “There are teachers, grandmas, grandpas, young and old, just people who want to invest in the community and can make a big difference in a kid’s life, which could help the community down the road.”

What ages does CASA advocate for?

“From birth till 18. Sometimes up to the age of 21 depending on the case, the circumstances of the child and what their legal resolution is, such as, if a child ages out of foster care, we can stay on the case if the child wants us to, if the court transitions them into independent living, and they want us to stay there as adults, we stay on it to support them into adulthood as they transition from foster care to independent living, or sometimes they may actually stay in a foster home or a group home, so we’re there,” Millender said. “We’re going to be that consistent voice, that consistent person that’s there for you. That’s very much one of the strengths of CASA. We’re there from start to finish.”

How does CASA determine a child’s best interest?

“CASA is trying to look at the child holistically, not just looking at it from an education perspective, a legal perspective, or a therapist’s perspective,” Leavell explained. “The cost of a volunteer is usually assigned just one or two cases. So, unlike the lawyers and other paid professionals, we have the ability to really focus on that one child and then be able to holistically look at all those elements at play together. Advocating for that means looking at every piece of the puzzle and trying to determine what makes most sense for this kid, just because they’re hyper, giving a medication doesn’t necessarily make the most sense. So just trying to explore all those options and make the best decision on their behalf in place of their parents.”

What kind of transformation have you seen in kids through CASA?

“I’ve seen a change in maturity in the child… I didn’t feel like I was always helping the child like I should be. It did seem like what I was putting into it was not translating into what I was hoping would happen. But we were on the phone one day when I was out of town, and I don’t know what prompted him to say this, but he said, ‘Hey, I just want you to know that you are, you are making a difference.’ You know, we don’t need them to say that, but it does help, right? Because when the child realizes that you’re making a difference, that’s really what matters,” Davidson recalled. “I teach at Abilene High, so I had a case where I had a child who was an eighth grader, and then, like, two or three years later, I saw him in high school. And of course, we can’t make first contact, especially at school, but he came up to me and it’s like I didn’t recognize him. I mean, he grew like another 12 inches. He was doing well. It’s just great to see that transformation on the positive side, from when you first get on a case to even afterward. The rest of the cases, I really don’t know what’s happening afterwards, because I haven’t seen them since the case closed.”

What is it like to be a CASA advocate?

“It’s so critical. I have all of the people who are in my case, I feel like we text and call each other constantly. The system as a whole is very challenging. So learning the legal system, learning all of those pieces of child welfare and the paperwork that’s required is very overwhelming. The good thing about CASA is that they provide staff and supervisors who are there every step of the way,” Leavell shared. “So being able to rely on them, from a support standpoint, run thoughts by them, being able to ask them questions, and bounce off ideas… It is such an invaluable tool.”

Leavell added, “Every time I walk into court with my kids or see them, just for a visit, they’re hugging me… Because the agenda of a CASA is really to look out for them, they know – and through our training and what we’re telling them – is we’re here to support you. We want them to be good, emotionally, physically, all of those components, and so it’s a super rewarding relationship. They are each are so different, as you can imagine, but they are great kids, all of them.”

How long does a CASA case typically last?

“So a case can last, we’ll say 12 to 18 months, based on our state’s laws and the need to have a legal resolution within that 12th or 18th month. But there are times when it can’t be resolved, so cases are extended. So we typically say 12 to 18 months, but we’ve had cases last for eight years,” Millender shared.

“Even if there’s a desire for the parent to flip that switch, it’s a lot of work for them. So being able to be with them during that time is what’s going on in that 12 to 18 months. It’s parenting the parents sometimes, while you’re parenting the kids and kind of being that mentor for them and building that relationship and building that trust. It’s not always super easy to just do what you want to do,” Leavell added.

What is it like to go through foster care without a CASA volunteer?

Leverton recalled, “There was a certain era of being disoriented. Most of the time, you really didn’t know why you were going places, or where you were going, or the rationale behind. For example, my brother, sister and I were together, and then we were separated, but we really didn’t have an understanding of why that separation was necessary… I was in a boy’s home, and so we kind of advocated for ourselves, and some of that information wasn’t accurate or wasn’t supportive, and so you always kind of felt alone, so to speak. So to have a CASA would have been super beneficial to just provide an explanation to certain things and circumstances that we were experiencing, and maybe get an understanding of what was happening while we were in our little world in the home.”

What difference would a CASA advocate have made?

“I think about all the many behavioral issues I encounter that started basically when I was separated from my father, and I came back, and although we were grateful to be home, it was a different dynamic, and it was a different atmosphere. I was very rebellious and I was very controversial, and I didn’t behave well at school, at home in any capacity, because, like she said, you feel isolated and alone, and even when you come back home,” Leverton recalled. “Now, my father’s a little apprehensive to give me any kind of structure or discipline, because he doesn’t want to lose this again. So I think to have had a CASA, or to have someone that was there to coach me through those times, or help provide some insight to things that I just I had no understanding of, that would have been powerful, and I think it would have maybe helped mitigate some of those issues that I had personally, just because I was a lost kid, even when I was found.”

What was it like as a child in foster care without an advocate in the courtroom?

Leverton said, “I honestly didn’t even know what was happening in the courtrooms. I didn’t know if my father was going, but as a child, I was sitting there waiting and anticipating some kind of news. They used to tell us that no news is good news. So I didn’t even know what that meant, but I would just wait to hear from a CPS worker. I never consistently had the same worker, so I was always kind of confused. Do I trust this person? Is this my worker, or whatever the case may be, and that’s really what I can remember from that.”

Who is involved in this process?

“Child Protective Services is involved and then they have a to engage a contractor partner with them, and that they’re the ones that are doing a lot of the work, as well, finding placements for the child, making sure they’re safe, doing home studies to make sure that that’s a safe place for that child to be,” Davidson explained. “Parents and family members are still around, so they’re still involved in the case too, because we always have the end goal, or the ultimate goal, which is always family reunification… There’s attorneys for the child… There are psychologists, like Kasey talked about, counselors, teachers, and medical staff. There are doctors, nurses, who are always involved in looking after their health, education and welfare.”

What kinds of needs do CASA volunteers address?

“If we think that this placement might not be right, the judge actually listens to us and says, we might need to have a better placement, or this might be better for the child than where they’re currently at,” Davidson said. “Sometimes, just a friend, right? Somebody to talk, to pick them up, take them out to lunch, go throw the football with them. That’s a big deal, too. I’m sure there are lawyers out there that might do that, but we have the ability, since we only have one or two cases where we can do that more often than most of the other people that are working hard on the case, but they might be working hard on three or four or five other or more cases.”

How does CASA impact local taxpayers?

Millender said, “We only serve Taylor County as Big Country CASA. So the number one win is with the child and having that relationship that anchors them, that lets them know it matters. Secondly, we save taxpayers over a million dollars a year because we provide that courtroom advocacy, whereas if CASA wasn’t here, we would have to have the judge appoint attorneys from the court-appointed attorney fees fund, which is taxpayer money. The sad news about that is, there’s not enough attorneys in our legal system to appoint attorneys because their case loads are much higher than ours… We make sure kids know they matter.”