Blue Ridge Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) in Staunton is accepting applications for 2025 volunteers.
CASA volunteers receive training and serve as advocates for children moving through the local court system in cases of child abuse or neglect. Volunteers may spend eight to 10 hours per month advocating for a child including visiting with the child.
“We call it extreme volunteering,” said Angela Crawford, Blue Ridge CASA‘s CEO.
CASA needs 10 to 15 volunteers from Staunton, Augusta County and Waynesboro.
“And that will help us serve new cases and new kids and that’ll also help us replace volunteers who are retiring or cycling off cases,” Crawford said.
Each case can last as long as 12 to 18 months for an advocate. The Virginia Department of Social Services determines the goal of each child in the court system and the initial goal is “almost always return home.”
“The advocate is truly there just to look out for the best interest of the child,” Crawford said. “They’re not advocating for any of the adults involved, they’re just for the best interests of the child.”
Volunteers must be prepared to have difficult conversations with the children for whom they advocate.
“[Advocates] talk about a lot of difficult subject matter, trauma, obviously abuse and neglect of children,” Crawford, who has been with CASA for nearly nine years, said.
Applications will be accepted between Thursday, January 2 and Friday, January 17, 2025 before a virtual class training begins Saturday, February 1, 2025, once a week for six weeks. Volunteers accepted into the program can expect approximately 40 hours of training.
“The training culminates with the trainees write a mock core report, so they’re given information like they would be given for a real case except it’s all fictional and they kind of investigate that, put records together and they actually write a mock core report at the end so that they’re prepared to do the real core report when they have their own case,” Crawford said.
No experience is necessary to become a CASA volunteer and CASA provides support for volunteers throughout training and court cases. Volunteers must be age 21 or older, have a valid driver’s license and be able to pass a background check.
Blue Ridge CASA for Children is the local program of a national program which allows each CASA manager can support up to 30 volunteers and serve up to 60 children.
“The [CASA] manager, that is their sole job is to support advocates.”
Individuals interested in becoming a CASA volunteer are encouraged to apply online.
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Rebecca Barnabi
