Inside CASA: Child-Focused Training
by Valerie Burchfield Rhodes

Tara Dempster is the Family Finding Manager for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Orange County (CASA OC) but she began her time with CASA as a volunteer advocate. Tara still remembers the impact of her CASA training more than seven years ago. One of the most powerful exercises was a simulation of the Game of LIFE. She recalls, “We were all in groups and given different scenarios. I was a single mom with 2-3 children, we were given a budget and told we had to find somewhere to live. We searched throughout all of Orange County and couldn’t find anything we could afford. So the way our group solved it was by buddying up and renting a small two bedroom place where we had to move 8-9 people in to live together. We were all just completely dumbfounded. We were already in the negative and what happens if our child needs a pair of shoes? Or money to go on a school field trip? What if you have to go to the doctor and get a prescription? It was really informing to think about poverty in our county and the struggles of some of the families we work with at CASA.” 

CASA volunteers are recruited from the community to mentor and advocate on behalf of Orange County youth in foster care. Many CASAs have spent a lifetime working with children as teachers or counselors, but others come to CASA without ever having spent any time at all with kids. Some CASAs have raised children of their own, and some have not. Some advocates are young adults just starting their career, while others are empty nesters looking for a way to give back to their community. And some CASAs were formerly in foster care themselves.

The one thing every CASA has in common is the comprehensive training they receive to help prepare them for their role as an advocate. This training is free and covers a range of topics including the roles and responsibilities of the position, the inner-workings of the dependency system, cultural sensitivity, childhood development, and the impact of trauma on children, amongst a range of other topics.

CASA Training Manager, Alaina Hess says, “You don’t need to have experience working with this population or even be a parent to do this work, we’re just looking for kind, emotionally healthy adults who are safe and want to show up for youth. Just be open and ready for whatever the case may be. Just showing up for someone is what really matters.”

CASA Training Manager, Alaina Hess, at the annual Back to School Picnic for CASA youth

The CASA program is truly unique because, in addition to a traditional mentorship role, CASA volunteers are trained to serve as advocates, sworn-in by a judge, for their youth. This requires a keen understanding of the responsibility, impact and sensitivity of the role. Potential volunteers begin their journey by attending an Information Session to learn about CASA, followed by an interview, and then a 32-hour comprehensive training program. 

Once training is completed and they are sworn in, CASA volunteers are matched with an Advocate Supervisor and then with their youth. Throughout their CASA journey, volunteers receive constant supervision and support from their supervisor. Advocate Supervisors answer questions and accompany advocates to court hearings which occur about every six months. Monthly trainings, typically led or facilitated by experts in the field, are also made available to advocates on topics like financial literacy, suicide prevention, LGBTQ issues and substance abuse. The whole training program is managed by Alaina and her team which includes Training Coordinator, Kristin Latourelle and Training Associate, Michelle Villery.

CASA Training

Over the years, Alaina and her team have developed a winning formula for engaging new volunteers in a memorable, impactful training experience. Advocate Kathy Lawrence completed her training eight years ago but still becomes emotional when describing her experience in training. “One session was about demonstrating how many professionals are needed to help these kids. Out of a room of around 40 trainees, they asked people to come forward to represent the social worker, the attorney, the educational-rights holder, the therapist, and so on until there was almost no one left sitting in their seats. What an impact it made to see how much help these children need. It was an overwhelming visual and reinforced my desire to contribute to being a part of that.” 

Like so many things, the CASA training program went through a major transition during Covid and went from entirely in-person to on Zoom literally overnight. Since that time, the program has evolved into a hybrid format which features both independent study on an online learning platform and live Zoom sessions, along with an in-person daylong session at CASA’s offices in Orange. This offers far more flexibility for volunteers with busy schedules. According to Alaina, the new teaching style has been very beneficial, “It feels like a perfect blend since it provides so much flexibility for people who may have had a hard time coming in for every session. We still break into small groups and have lots of interaction. Zoom allows for everyone to provide immediate feedback through the chat or polls and is more comfortable for people who may be reluctant to share in a large group. We’ve also increased the number of times we offer training sessions from 6 to 10 times per year.”

CASA OC Hybrid Training

Kristin echoes this opinion, “The hybrid format makes it more interactive than the previous lecture format. We are now able to incorporate different training styles for people who learn in different ways.” Kristin describes additional ways her department tries to foster interaction amongst advocates, “Advocates love to talk to one another since they are bound by confidentiality not to talk about their cases outside of CASA. So we are always trying to offer more ways they can get together. Some prefer in-person while others prefer Zoom. Our ‘CASA to CASA’ events will stay online but our next ‘CASA Connect’ will be an informal in-person dinner gathering. And there’s always a great turnout for the annual CASA Conference.”

This year’s CASA Conference is just around the corner and is one of the largest of its kind in the CASA network. It’s a tremendous undertaking with a huge assist by Saddleback Church who hosts the conference at their Lake Forest campus every year for close to 250 attendees. The conference invites CASA volunteers to the daylong event to enjoy breakfast, lunch and camaraderie with fellow advocates. All attendees go home with CASA swag and raffle prizes such as gift cards to recognize their generous contribution of time. This year’s conference theme is, “Belonging: Kinship Culture.” According to Alaina, “The annual conference is such a great way for us to show appreciation for our volunteers because it’s the only event that’s just about them. Our goal every year is for them to come away feeling invigorated, refreshed and connected.”

2023 CASA Conference with David Ambroz, author and former youth in foster care

The training team is always looking for ways to expand the Continuing Education topics they offer to advocates to support them in their work. They recently created a Juvenile Justice module to assist advocates working with youth who are in the juvenile justice system. Amy Spencer, is one such advocate and she says, “The training has been just incredible and very helpful. I try to take advantage of every training, having had no experience with kids in the system and growing up in a very different world. The training helps me develop more insight.” 

Alaina says this is the best job she’s ever had, “I get to train adults who want to give back to kids. When people show up for an Information Session and commit to going through all this training, they're showing up for the kids in our community. These kids are our kids, the ones we should all be looking out for. Our volunteers show up to support their community and don’t turn away. The families we serve are having a hard time and we need to help them.” She gets emotional as she says, “I still cry every session when we read the, “We Are Responsible” poem which concludes with this;

We are responsible for children who want to be carried and for those who must,

For those we never give up on and

for those who don’t get a second chance.

For those we smother and

for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.”

To learn more about becoming a CASA, you are invited to attend a CASA Information Session. To find out more about becoming a Family Finding advocate, click here.