I receive training in September and was sworn in October. In the same month I received my first CASA case. It has been very rewarding to help my three girls. They all are beautiful and have different personalities and I love spoiling them! Especially the youngest who is three. Tomorrow I go to the merits hearing and I am sort of nervous. I have to be there at 9:30 am and I just want to make a great impression on the judge that I really did my work. Anyway, how did you all, more experienced GALs feel on your first case??

Serenity

Dear Dr. Phil,

Thank you for promoting the good work of CASAs on your show, which brought it to my attention.  While that show was still on the air, I emailed my local CASA for information. I have been to the orientation and interview, and now been selected for training, which will commence early in 2010.

My mother was the product of abusive and neglectful parents and was bounced around numerous foster homes. She repeated the pattern and abused my siblings and I. As an adult she continued to treat me with disrespect, rage, maniplations, lies and inappropriate behavior. I tried for years to set boundaries, use "I" statements, tell her how her actions made me feel -- to no avail. When I had children it became even more critical to try to change her behavior, but in the end she made no effort to try... even when I was specific in what I needed from her.... even when she knew the stakes. I finally divorced myself and my family from that toxic relationship. While I always felt sorry for the child within her, I tried to hold her accountable for her behavior as an adult and that got me no where.

My mother recently passed. I have no regrets for my actions, because I know how hard and how long I worked at trying to have a loving and respectful relationship with her and because my children are precious and deserved an environment free of the constant rage, vulgarity, and other inappropriate behavior.

I wonder how her life might have been different had she had a CASA who could intervene, help to ensure her needs were met, help facilitate a stable enviornment, and help her to know her worth as a human being. I can't help her, but I can make a different with a precious child currently in the foster care system.

So I thank you for bringing this program to my attention and to the attention to your millions of viewers. There is a huge need for volunteers, particularly for men. I trust that your continued efforts to promote the CASA volunteer experience will continue to produce good people who are willing to commit some time to make a difference in the lives of children.

And it's been the most rewarding, most eyeopening, most frustrating experience of my life. I know why we are needed. I currently have a family of 5 girls whose mother is in prison on two counts of first degree child abuse. One of the girls is in residential foster care for what her aunt calls "Unruly and incorrigible" behavior. In my opinion, and the opinion of her caseworker, she's a typical teenager. The rest of the girls are divided amongs two family members, one being the aunt who couldn't handle this child.

What frustrates me is that the GAL and the Adoption Worker will visit her once every three months, just before court. I see her every week. Her DHS caseworker talks to her on the phone weekly. The GAL and Adoption worker don't even know this child. Yet, they are "allowed" to participate in the decisions made for her. Fortunately, the judge on the case places MORE STOCK in what I say than in what anyone else on the case says. She has tons of respect for the CASA program.

I am thankful to be in the life of these children. They have been thru more in their short lives than many adults I know. They deserve to have a "constant" in their lives, and I'm proud to be that constant. I didn't get into this looking for a payoff, but I got one the day the child in residential told me that during high school orientation the kids were asked who they respected and trusted most in the world besides their parents and her response was, "Miss Lisa." I bawled like a baby after taking her back to the facility that day.

I have been a foster parent for over 5 years and have seen the good, the bad and the ugly within the system. It has been an emotional rollercoaster ride that has too often been saved at the last minute by a case worker, GAL (CASA), or therapist who was willing to stick their neck out against the system to fight for the best interests of the child.

Unfortunately, the current laws and corruption of people who could make a difference, make a system (initially created with the intention of protecting the best interest sof children) instead a system where egos, politics, jobs and money are far more important than the defenseless.

Most recently I have had a case where I was given 2 boys (brothers) to care for because of substance abuse by both parents. This was the 2nd time the older brother was taken from the mother although the 1st time the government did not get involved other than to allow her to sign over custody to the grandparents at a formal hearing.

This is by no means a short story, but 2 items show a glaring lack of care.

1st is that after 15 mths the grandparents agreed to take the older child and adopt him while agreeing that I would keep the baby and adopt him (their health was not conducive to caring for a medically needy child). The plan was for the grandparents to become foster parents and do the adoption through C&Y who had current custody. However, when the grandfather's criminal check showed and 30 yr old assault charge on his record they were informed that they were no longer eligible to be foster parents. However, to get around this law the agency was willing to sign full custody over to the grandparents of the older child so he could still go live with them without the supervision or support of C&Y.

In other words, it was not ok for C&Y to allow the grandfather to have his grandson live with him while being supervised on a regular basis by a caseworker due to his criminal record. However, it was ok for them to give this same man full custody of his grandson without any supervision whatsoever so that if anything should happen to this child while living with the grandparents C&Y would not be responsible...

2ndly, due to lack of attention and various mistakes on the part of the adoption caseworker and her supervisor the younger child's adoption process was delayed many months beyond what the law gives as the cut off time for a child to be given a permanent home. This little boy was 7 months old when he came to live with me and (because of the items listed above) at 4 years 2 months old was returned to his biological mother with little transition time. This was against all advice of his Psychologist\Therpist and his GAL\CASA worker.

He has been allowed to see me once in the 2 months since he was taken and only 3-4 phone calls in the 1st few weeks. He is a very intelligent child and was heart-broken when was told that he would no longer be allowed to live with me who was the only mommy he had known for 3 1/2 years and was now going to go live with some one we had only recently introduced as his birth mommy. 

The C&Y workers responsible for this situation have not once contacted me since they took him away to inform me of how he is or to even see how I am dealing with the loss. The small amount of contact I have been allowed to have with him has been initiated by me with the birth mother and only because she was still trying to get more "things" from me not because she wanted him to have contact with me for his good. The workers handling the case did everything in their power to destroy every positive step I made towards developing a good relationship with the birth mother in order to make this transition (that should never have happened in the first place) an easier one on the child.

I would really love to see Dr. Phil do a full investigation on the child welfare system. The good the bad and the evil. I can assure you there are plenty of all 3 to make a series of shows tho unfortunately the bad and evil get more press time as always!

Dr. Phil: Wanted to thank you for your efforts on behalf of CASA. Receiving national recognition of the important mission and purpose of this volunteer driven organization allows for an open dialogue leading to enlightenment and, ultimately, education of people at all levels of our society. As I begin my fourth year of service, I recognize so many additional facets regarding everyday life that were unknown to me when I initially volunteered. These include but are NOT limited to: abuse, child abuse, verbal & emotional abuse, protective services regarding various vulnerable populations, programs & services unknown to those NOT involved within the system, and the interplay and direct correlation between actions both seen and acted out presently with future behaviors resulting in almost a cyclical progression that doesn't want to end without intervention. Children need individuals with your reputation and stature to initiate change! However, I will also advance the proposition that the many different actors within this system, one of whom being CASA, do a tremendous service for Our society and do so with little to no emphasis on monetary reward or recognition but simply because it is the proper thing to do! Thanks, again, for your efforts. Sincerely, J.P. Hemminger

Dr. Phil and Robin, for opening my eyes to a need that although I knew had to be there but didn't know how to go about helping.
 I was sworn in on September 3rd,2009 as a CASA Volunteer, and have my first case that I will be working on. 
 

Thank you again...
  Shari

I am the Director of a CASA program in Northern NY and since the two of you have become associated with CASA I have gotten many more calls about the program and from people wanting to be volunteers.
As non-profit organizations there is no way we could afford the publicity that you mentioning CASA once on a national broadcast can bring us.
I recently trained the largest group of volunteers I have since taking this position 4 years ago and I attribute alot of that to your support . Even though Jefferson County New York is not a large, well known area we do have children in need and every volunteer I can train means there is at least one more child who's situation will be investigated and shared with the court.
So, thank you and keep talking about us, we like it !

Is there anyone available in Mass?
Lin