Volunteers sworn in as court appointed advocates

Diana Sonnie and Karen Pilger were the first volunteers sworn in as Court Appointed Special Advocates in Cheyenne County Wednesday at the Cheyenne County Courthouse.

The job of Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA members, is to help children in the court system, program director Yvonne Donaldson said.

“We work with children who are in court through abuse or neglect. Our job is to get to know the children, their caregivers, their teachers and anybody who has any information about them, and really help the courts decide where the best living situation for the children is,” Donaldson said.

A third volunteer,Renna Karman, will be sworn in next week, Donaldson said.

Donaldson said that CASA members want to make sure that the children have a safe and permanent home, preferably with their birth parents.

Though CASA is a national organization that began in 1977, this is the first time the program will be in place in Cheyenne County, Cheyenne County CASA Board of Directors President Rebecca Napier said.

“We are a brand new organization in Sidney so we don’t have any volunteers yet. Diana, Karen and Renna are our first ones,” Donaldson said.

In July of 2010 it was apparent that there was a need for CASA members in Cheyenne County and that is when the Cheyenne County CASA Board of Directors began, Napier said. The board has six members.

Donaldson said that CASA is a program to give children a voice.

“In the court system the parents have a voice and the state has a voice. The kids are often unrepresented,” Donaldson said.

“Our volunteers are legally appointed representatives of the court,” Donaldson said. “When the judge assigns them to a case they have as much access to that child and that child’s information data as any attorney would.”

Donaldson said that the goal of the organization is to help children experiencing the court system to have a safe and permanent home where they can be a normal child and be unafraid.

Donaldson said that CASA members help make decisions that are best for the child and in turn help them in the long run as adults.

“This last week has proven that we need healthy adults in our communities. That’s why the key is to help these children have safe and healthy childhoods so they can be healthy, productive adults,” Donaldson said.

Donaldson said that it has been proven that when a child feels safe at home they do better in school, receive better test scores and are better behaved in the classroom.

A lot of children that experience CASA volunteers while they are younger become CASA volunteers later on in life because they understand how much it can help a child, Donaldson said.

As the program continues, Donaldson said that the she hopes to gain at least a dozen volunteers and that more men volunteers are needed.

“If we had enough volunteers then every child would get a CASA volunteer and that’s our goal,” Donaldson said. “As we get more volunteers we will be able to help more children because any case could last a year or two years or longer.”

To become a CASA volunteer you must be at least 21 years of age, pass an extensive background check, complete 30 hours of training and commit to working with a child’s case for at least a year, Donaldson said.

Donaldson said that preferably the volunteer would stay with the case for the entire duration and that they only work on one case at a time as to not be too overwhelmed.

The newly sworn in volunteers said that they were ready to get started and understood that this was an important service for the community.

“I wanted to do this because I knew it was a necessity for the kids in Cheyenne County. There is a lot of court cases involving kids and they need us,” new volunteer Diana Sonnie said.

“We have no legal authority other than helping the children. We will be working with the court system and making recommendations to the court system as to how the child feels or the progress that an individual is making,” Sonnie said.

Sonnie said that a guardian ad litem and a social worker will always be assigned to the case as well and the volunteers will not take their place but will instead help them.

“We will be able to go to the schools, go to the foster homes and go to all the individual people and talk and see what would be best for the child and what the child wants,” Sonnie said.

“The most important thing is being the voice of the child and making sure that the child has a voice in the court system,” volunteer Karen Pilger said.

The new volunteers can immediately take on cases that the judge asks them for help on, Donaldson said.

The next opportunity to train to become a CASA member is mid-January, Donaldson said. Anyone interested in joining can contact Donaldson at 249-4715.