CASA - Helping abused and neglected children

Volunteers with Court Appointed Special Advocates, CASA, said Monday the need for their services in this region is great - and the need for more of them is dire.

The purpose - the reason for their existence - Melanie Vinberg said, is reunion, when possible.

"Our CASAs' goal is to have reunification with families. We're there for the children, but we're also there for the whole family," she said. "If reunification doesn't work, we are there for termination or guardianship or adoption to somebody else."

Marge Suek has only been a CASA for a year. As a former educator, she said, being a CASA plays to her soft spot for children.

"There's hurt out there, a lot of different things, possibly some dysfunctionality that has gone from generation to generation," Suek said. "We want to break that cycle, even if we can only help one family. It would mean a lot to me. I'm personally invested in this. We got to reach out and do some good. And it starts out here."

CASAs are volunteers who intervene as they try to help a child who is being abused or neglected. They then navigate through the courts and the tunnels of laws and regulations with the intention of helping stop the destructive pattern in the child's life and thus set them on an one more assuring.

Executive Director of CASA of Hill County Mark Douglass said that once allegations of abuse or neglect arise, Child and Family Services will remove a child from that environment.

"Of course, we want to make sure the state does not remove kids willy-nilly, so the court has to be involved, and the court has to approve any kind of removal or action by the department, Child and Family Services," Douglass said.

That is when, he said, the CASAs get involved.

"After a removal, there have to be a number of different hearings in order to make sure the state is following the laws and procedures ... the further along we get, the more important it is to get a CASA involved," he said. "We serve as the guardian in that case with children, and essentially, we're tasked with being the investigative arm of the court. We're the judge's eyes and ears in a way. Anything that a person says to a CASA, they say to a judge."

The CASAs visit the child monthly, notify the judge how the child is doing, and the rest of the time is spent investigating ways to help the child - talking to friends, family members and teachers.

Douglass said there are approximately 200 cases in Hill County, with anywhere between 40 or 50 children waiting to get CASAs. Douglass has said CASAs take cases based on priority - the worse a child's environment is, the faster a CASA gets involved in their lives. Violent conditions and excessive degrees of drug use in the home are the types of things to put a child in the front of the line, Douglass has said.

CASAs spend between five and 10 hours a month on a case, Douglass said he likes to tell people.

However, Sherry Edwards, a retired Presbyterian minister and CASA, said Douglass' claim is not entirely true.

"When Mark (Douglass) said five hours per child, he lied," she said, with everyone in the room joining her in laughter.

Douglass smiled, and then said that five hours is the baseline for what's required.

"And then, the sky's the limit," he added.

He praised Edwards for being a CASA who has gone way beyond five hours.

"Sherry (Edwards) has gone out of her way to get some things accomplished - what has not been able to be done in two years - yet she's done it in a couple months," he said.

The way Edwards sees it, she said, CASAs are in the middle of it all.

"One thing I see," she said, "is the CASA is a common denominator."

She said that after being assigned a case, she called the child's relative. The relative told her the social worker from Child Family Services who was on the case was no longer there and asked Edwards to find out what that meant from thereon out. Edwards said she then called a Child Protective Services worker, who was involved with the attorney of the mother of the child. The mother wanted to make sure the child was involved with the tribe, which then prompted Edwards to visit Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

"So I have contact with five different people that was dealing with that family," Edwards said.

While rewarding, being a CASA is not easy, the members of the group agreed. It can be difficult communicating with the parents, it's difficult navigating the laws, it's difficult seeing the conditions some of the children live in - "We go to houses, sometimes it's a little hard"  - and there is also the psyches of the young people they're trying to help.

"Any child who is taken out of the home always has a separation issue," Vinberg said. "You have to deal with that. ... No matter what their mom or dad has done, those children are still going to love them. (Douglass) is awesome at trainings every month for us. He'll bring in specialists or he'll bring information in to help us with what the kids go through."

Drugs and alcohol, the group members agreed, was one of the common ingredients in the lives of the children who need help, methamphetamine being the top culprit.

Beth Hannah is on the CASA board of directors. She is not a CASA, but she said she has seen enough. She works for District Court Judge Daniel Boucher, which is the court the Hill County cases go through.

"It's hard to see what these kids go through," she said, trying, but failing, to hold back tears. "I didn't really realize until I started working for the judge. The meth is just off the charts. It's horrible. It's pretty much tied into every case."

"My baby was a meth baby," CASA Brenda Skornogoski quickly added. "That was the fifth baby removed from the birth mother."

With so many children waiting on a CASA, there's no question more CASAs are needed, everyone agreed. Anyone can become a CASA, they said.

Anyone interested in becoming a CASA or would like more information on CASA in Montana and along the Hi-Line can call Douglass at 265-6743, ext. 1135, or sent an email to [email protected].

People who are interested in becoming a CASA must pass a background check and not have any violent offenses or offenses against children. Then the candidate must go through 30 hours of pre-service training, which includes training on family dynamics, child development, family strengths training, cultural sensitivity and general information about the legal process.

CASA is scheduled to have a table set up at Holiday Village Mall Saturday, and the next training session begins Monday.