Mark Douglass honored for work at CASA of Hill County

Last week, Montanans were honored at the annual Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Conference in Helena for their work on preventing child abuse and neglect. Mark Douglass, executive director of Hill County's Court Appointed Special Advocate organization, was among those awarded April 14.

Douglass was named CASA Program Director of the Year.

He said he is very honored to have received the award.

"I am very humbled by it," Douglass said. "To be honest, the work that I do wouldn't be worth anything without the volunteers that are actually working with the kids."

Pat Floyd, a CASA volunteer, said Douglass is very deserving of the award.

"Mark is certainly dedicated to the welfare of children and he is very supportive of the CASA workers," she said.

Floyd said she admires Douglass' dedication.

"I can't think of another person that would have exceeded his qualities," she added.

Douglass has been involved with CASA for about three and a half years.

"I worked with kids in inner-city Boston and inner-city Houston for a number of years," he said. "This was just one of those things that I've always had a passion for as far as serving kids."

Douglass said CASA volunteers are appointed by judges and represent children who have been taken out of their homes through accusations of abuse and neglect.

"They're tasked with investigating and doing independent work," he said. "They are the wisdom of the community being heard in the courtroom."

CASA volunteers then make recommendations to judges about what is best for the children.

"The main force of our task is to give the court information about what is actually happening in the child's life, to help the judge know the child and their specific situation and specific personality, and then to make recommendations to the court that are in the best interest of the child," Douglass said.

Douglass added that the recommendations rely on the cases themselves.

"It might be increased visitation with either siblings or the birth mother and birth father," he said. "It may be that we make recommendations regarding specific situations that are going on at school."

Douglass said a big part about his job is coaching and making sure CASA volunteers know what is going on in court.

"Our goal is threefold. First, we want all of our kids to be safe. Second, we want them all to have a permanent home. And third, we want them all to achieve the best well being that they can," he said.

Mentoring is large part of the CASA process.

"We want to alleviate the trauma that these kids are going through," Douglass said. "Part of that is teaching these kids that they have a voice."

Douglass said CASA works with a wide range of ages, interests and levels of development.

"We work with kids from birth to 18 years," he said..

Hill County is the main area Douglass' organization covers.

"We also take cases in Liberty and Chouteau counties, and just recently we have taken over providing services for the 17th Judicial District, which is Blaine County, Phillips County, and Valley County," he said.

People older than 21 who do not have an arrest record for a violent offense or for child endangerment or abuse can become a volunteer.

Douglass said CASA volunteers have the privilege of getting a lot more traction with the children and get to know them personally.

"Since a CASA only takes one case at a time, with maybe two or three or four kids tops, then they get to spend all of their investigative time focused on those kids - whereas a social service worker may have 30 or 40 kids that they're working with," he said.

Douglass said there are 15 CASA volunteers in Hill County.

"We absolutely need more," he said. "We try to keep it one case to one volunteer, that may include two, three, or four children. Once we get above that point, I tend to try to assign two volunteers to a case."

Douglass added that CASA training will begin May 11.

For more information on CASA, call 265-6743 or email [email protected].