Collin County Living Well Magazine March/April 2016 | Page 34

CASA
Advocating
for the Child
By Melanie Hess

H

ow come the TV is still on? Is it really 3 a.m.?
Why does Mom always leave for so long? Why
does the baby keep crying? Where is the food?
School will be a good break from all this. Wasn’t
it supposed to start last week?

Many parents cannot fathom why any child would have to
ask these questions. Others know it’s the daily reality for
thousands of children in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
As freeing as it can be to leave an unsafe situation, children
often enter the foster system with a mix of emotions, some
feel as alone and confused as before. While the hope is
that a foster home will serve as a temporary haven, each
home or center does not always last the duration of a child’s
time in the already overwhelmed system.
Fortunately, children can count on at least a glimpse of consistency throughout this season in the form of their Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), a volunteer who comes
alongside the courts to help place the child in a permanent
safe, loving home.
Consistency is Key
“As a CASA, you are the constant in a child’s life,” says
Sylvia Gray, an eight-year CASA veteran in Dallas.
Gray explained with the average case lasting about a year,
a child’s CASA has ample time to get to know the child and
their situation.
“We are able to get all the information that Child Protective
Services and the attorneys don’t always have time to,” she
says. “CASAs are the eyes and ears of the courts for these
kids. A judge has so many cases and very little time.”
Gray described it as putting a puzzle together.
“I observe the surroundings in the home,” she says. “I visit
the school and see how they are in th H