The Court Appointed Special Advocate program, (CASA), of West Central Illinois, is looking for volunteers to serve children in foster care. The program serves 170 children annually from birth to age 21. Sara Robison, Executive Director at CASA, discusses the process for a new volunteer to be assigned to a child:
“A volunteer needs to be 21 years of age. Then we do a background check with state, local and federal law enforcement. No real particular skills are needed other than the age requirement and background screening. We train our volunteers to serve the children in the community through our national CASA curriculum. Volunteers go through that curriculum then do observation in the court and then they are assigned to a youth in the community to serve,” shares Robison.
A volunteer will spend 5 to 10 hours a month directly with the child and meet on a monthly basis with those involved to report on the child and keep progressing them forward.
For more information about getting involved to be a volunteer, log onto their website casaofknox.com or call 309-343-4299.
written by Kelsey Crain
