As the CASA staff member in charge of volunteer recruitment, I get a lot of questions about what training is like. So, I decided to find out for myself! I attended all five weeks of training, completed online pre-work, observed a court hearing, and was even sworn in as an officer of the court.
What stood out to me about CASA training was that it took very complex topics- that could each be their own entire class- and narrowed them down to be relevant to the CASA role. While it was easy to get off track and want to learn more about specific topics, everything was connected back to the CASA role and how it would apply to being a strong advocate. I didn’t finish training knowing everything about the child welfare system. However, I feel confident in my ability to gather a well-rounded perspective on a family’s situation and dig deeper to understand what is in the best interest of their child/children.
Training consisted of five in person classes- three hours once a week in the evening. We also had online “pre-work” to complete each week, which took on average 1-3 hours. The prework consisted of videos, articles, discussion posts, and other writing exercises. Classes were led by CASA’s advocate supervisors and involved both lectures and hands-on participation. As someone who learns best through practice, I found the case studies to be the most helpful. We read through sample interviews with children, biological parents, foster parents, case workers, and everyone else involved in the case. We gathered information from those interviews to come up with appropriate recommendations and write a practice court report.
I appreciated how family-centered the training content was- it was strongly aligned with CASA’s “reunification first” model. For those who are unfamiliar with that term, the primary goal of CASA volunteers is to facilitate the reunification of children to their families of origin, until and unless it is no longer a safe option. If parental rights are terminated and reunification is no longer an option, the focus of a CASA’s advocacy will shift to a different permanency goal.
During one of the training exercises, we looked at an image of a family and were asked to notice and identify strengths. I think it’s natural to first notice “weaknesses,” such as the messy living room or the mom smoking a cigarette indoors. But after intentionally shifting my perspective, I picked up on several strengths- fresh groceries on the counter and the dad hugging his child after getting home from work. This exercise revealed why it’s so important to take a strength-based approach when working towards reunification. It takes conscious effort to overcome our biases about what a family should look like and focus on advocating for services that will build on their strengths, ultimately leading to a safe, supportive home for their child(ren) to return to.
Serving as a court appointed special advocate is a unique and deeply rewarding opportunity. We encourage people to go through the entire training process to decide if volunteering as a CASA is the right fit. If you’ve been wanting to get involved, consider joining a class- they’re offered four times per year, and will prepare you to be a well-rounded advocate for abused and neglected children.
