
6 minute read
INSPIRATION
CASA TURNS TWENTY!
the story behind the celebration
It takes enormous effort from a whole lot dedicated people to make a non-profit organization viable over the long haul. But, it also requires the audacity of just one person to bring it to life in the first place. Such is the case with CASA of San Luis Obispo County as it celebrates its twentieth birthday this year. When local businesswoman Susan Polk and her husband Jim first became foster parents here in the mid-1980’s, they realized that things would be much easier if they could talk with other foster parents. How nice would it be to trade tips and share stories and perhaps commiserate once in awhile? They checked in with the courts and the Department of Social Services, but as Polk shares, “They just would not budge when we asked for information about other families, and they were unable to understand how it would benefit everyone.” Polk then decided to start up the Foster Parent Association locally, an organization which facilitates connection among local families. As the Polk Family grew, so did their participation in the association. It was not long before Polk was attending seminars and workshops, learning all that she could about foster care.
A few years prior, David Soukup, a rather innovative Seattle-based Juvenile Court judge observed that the children appearing before him needed advocates. So many of them had parents who were incapable of making decisions for their kids, or had new foster parents who, frankly, did not know the children well enough yet to understand their needs—which meant that they often fell through the proverbial cracks in the system. The judge then designed a program for volunteers to attend court hearings to speak up for and advocate on the behalf of these children. That person, who was recognized by the court as the child’s representative became known as a CASA, or Court Appointed Special Advocate. During the mid-80’s, a San Luis Obispo County grand jury commissioned a report citing the need for representation of local children stuck in the Juvenile Court, or Dependency Court as it is known here. As the saying goes, if you want to get something done, find a busy person to make it happen. So, Polk set out to start a CASA program locally. She began by writing a grant to secure funds. A total of $20,000 was awarded as seed money by another organization. Next she hired an attorney, Mary Harris, to help set up
a legitimate 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Lastly came the recruitment of Terri Clarke, a marriage and family therapist as well as Carol Mathews, a Cuesta College staff member. The start-up team then tackled the “mountains of paperwork” which were generated as part of the process and the continual “chipping away” finally resulted in the birth of CASA of San Luis Obispo County. That first year, 1993, debuted with 18 trained volunteers who served 18 children—since then, over 2,000 kids have had a CASA here locally. Today the organization is guided by the steady hand of Teresa Tardiff, who received her CASA training in Santa Barbara around the same time Polk was signing her name on the start-up documents back at home. A few years later Tardiff found herself moving up the coast to begin her work with CASA of San Luis Obispo County. The organization now has close to one hundred volunteers, or CASA’s. Each CASA is assigned one child, or a group of sibling children and puts in, on average, about 15 hours per month; but, depending on the individual CASA and the needs of the children, it can be more (some CASA’s attend their child’s parentteacher conferences, for example). And, by law, each one of those CASA’s must be supervised by a full-time staff person with each staff person overseeing no more than 30 CASA’s. Currently there are a total of four supervisors, three full-time and one part-time. The biggest challenges faced by the organization, according to Tardiff, come down to the need for more funding so that more supervisors can be hired as well as the need for more CASA volunteers. The new CASA’s go through 30 hours of training before being assigned to advocate for their first child and the organization has to be careful to maintain its 30 to 1 ratio of volunteers to supervisors, which makes it a delicate balancing act. But, the need is there. Currently, there are approximately 550 children in the Dependency Court system in San Luis Obispo County and CASA is able to provide services to about 150 of them. To a CASA the work is highly rewarding, as they are able to make a direct impact on the lives of children. And, Tardiff lights up when she reports that “many of [the foster children] have now returned to become CASA’s themselves, including Sonja Polk [Meet Your Neighbor, Apr/May 2013], who Susan and Jim Polk took in as a foster child but have since adopted.” Today, Sonja spends much of her free time serving as a spokesperson for the organization, which has come a long way since the days when she was first introduced to a CASA of her own.
SLO LIFE
To donate to CASA of SLO County or inquire about becoming a volunteer CASA, please call them at (805) 541-6542.
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