Ready to advocate

COEUR d'ALENE - A child protection case is a multi-sided affair crowded with adults. There are parents, guardians, government agencies, the court system and lawyers.

The individual at the heart of it, the one with the smallest voice, is the child whose destiny must be decided.

That's why North Idaho CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) exists. CASA volunteers provide court advocacy for children who have been abandoned, abused or neglected, and subsequently removed from their homes.

The agency's newest crop of trained advocates was sworn in Tuesday in a courtroom in the Juvenile Justice Building in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

"CASA provides a valuable service to the court as well," said Judge James Stow, before swearing the nine new advocates in.

Appointed by judges, North Idaho CASA's volunteer advocates serve children living in the five northern counties included in Idaho's First Judicial District.

Stow, a magistrate judge who handles child protection cases in Kootenai County District Court, said a child advocate provides an in-depth, unique perspective of each case, one that may not be seen by the others involved in the process.

He spoke of a recent case in which an advocate became aware that the child being represented "very much missed the family dog," a situation that Stow said can rarely be remedied. But, the CASA advocate inquired about it, and the child's foster family was able to take the dog also. Stow said that to that child, it was a significant accommodation that would not have been made without the child advocate's input.

Stow warned the new advocates that there would be times that they would become discouraged with the court process and the limitations of the legal system.

"Ultimately, I think, the rewards outweigh those frustrations," he said.

Lorraine Clark, a CASA advocate with several months of experience, was among several seasoned volunteers who attended the swearing in ceremony.

Clark told The Press that when she was seeking an altruistic endeavor to dive into, she recalled stories the newspaper had published about the children's court advocacy agency.

"I learned more about CASA and signed up for the training," Clark said. "It was so interesting, and I felt I could make a worthwhile contribution to the cause. I only wish I would have done it sooner."

Clark, a former public school teacher, said it's rewarding when she sees that the children know she's there for them, that she's got their backs.

"They know they aren't alone," Clark said.

Dan English, executive director of North Idaho CASA, said the volunteer advocates are "very, very special people."

The advocates spend their own time and resources to be trained, attend court hearings, investigate and provide reports to the court, he said.

"And most of all, to be there to bolster the life of a child by bringing any resources possible to bear on behalf of their CASA children," English said. "These are often emotionally tough situations that require tender hearts but strong and objective resolve."

There remains a critical need in North Idaho for more volunteer advocates.

North Idaho CASA currently has 64 trained advocates, 51 of them in Kootenai County. At the same time, there are 287 children being served by CASA in the five northern counties; 187 of them are in Kootenai County.

There are several reasons for the shortage, English said.

The normal ongoing recruitment process was interrupted last fall when the agency went through several staff turnovers, he said.

"The holidays impact both our ability to recruit and train new volunteers at the same time of the year that family stress is often the highest and leads to spikes in the number of shelters and new cases being assigned," English said.

They've lost some volunteer advocates to new jobs, relocations and other changing demands on the volunteers' time. Several advocates have had to scale back or drop out of the program recently due to health issues.

"As a result we have not been able to accept or maintain all the cases that have come to us which is our No. 1 goal," English said.

North Idaho CASA is participating in a new national CASA training program that includes online learning, shortening the training time down from 10 weeks to five weeks, he said.

There are training sessions set for April and June, and English encourages anyone interested to contact the North Idaho CASA office for additional information.

"We are in particular need of volunteers in Kootenai, Benewah and Shoshone counties," English said.

Information: (208) 667-9165