Like many of you, we are paying close attention to the evolving COVID-19 situation locally and nationwide. While we must take prudent measures to help keep our children, volunteers and stakeholders safe, CASA of Atlantic and Cape May Counties is exploring every possible way to continue our advocacy efforts in order to fulfill our critical mission and support the children and families we serve.
During a crisis – be it a hurricane or a pandemic – the need for CASA grows even greater. Many of our children are from vulnerable populations who will be dramatically affected by this health crisis – losing the meals they depend upon at school, missing school lessons for lack of internet, or simply increasing the anxiety in children who are already traumatized by their experience.
The children we serve still need our advocacy, so we have moved all in-person visits to video and phone check-ins while in-person visits are not possible. By adjusting our practices and protocols we can prioritize safety while still supporting our essential role for children and balancing the health and safety of our volunteers. By employing these few alternatives to face-to-face child visits, we will provide a seamless continuation of care for our existing CASA children.
Additionally, we still have to think about the children who are not yet assigned a CASA, or who will be entering the system while this crisis is still unfolding. We need to ensure that those children will also have the benefit of a CASA volunteer to advocate for their best interest – especially during this complex time and long after this crisis ends.
Therefore, we challenge you to use this self-quarantine as a time of self-reflection to commit to helping your community and the life of a child in need by becoming a CASA volunteer.
We will be moving our information sessions, pre-training interviews and volunteer training process entirely online to keep our prospective volunteers and our staff safe. We are still ready for you to become a CASA volunteer – please consider joining us!
Visit https://atlanticcapecasa.org/getinvolved/ to start the process now.
Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for Children’s mission to speak on behalf of abused and neglected children is central to fulfilling society’s most fundamental obligation to protect a child’s right to be safe, treated with respect and to help them reach their fullest potential. For more information about CASA, visit AtlanticCapeCASA.org.
CASA for Children 