Friends and Neighbors: CASA - Rose Bowcut

Services in Kimball are expanding for some of the community's "most vulnerable," according to Rose Bowcut – Executive Director Cheyenne County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate).

CASA, a non-profit organization is branching out into Kimball County and with two Kimball County volunteers already on board, as well as several key cross-over components, Bowcut said the decision to extend these services locally was an easy one to make.

"We are lucky. In Sidney we have the same judge, Judge Roland, and the Department of Health and Human Services caseworkers that we have here, in Kimball," she said. "So that is a huge crossover."

CASA trains volunteers to be advocates for children whose home placement is being determined in juvenile court generally as a result of abuse or neglect, Bowcut said.

It is this advocate's role to provide the child's attorney and the judge in each case with a complete background and a researched recommendation of which home situation is in the child's best interest.

"Judge Roland describes a CASA advocate as his eyes and ears outside of the courtroom," she said.

As such, advocates with CASA are allowed access to all aspects of the child's life, so they are armed with all the information needed to truly advocate for the child's best interests, according to Bowcut. This includes access to medical history, educational records, and court reports.

But providing this crucial information is not the sole, or even the primary, purpose of an advocate.

It is this volunteer's job to explain what is happening throughout the legal process and explain each person's role to the child, as well as offer trust and encourage the child to express his or her own opinion and hopes, all while remaining objective observers.

That seems like a tough job, and it can be, but Bowcut said each advocate is carefully prepared for the job before them.

Potential advocates must complete an application, provide references, pass a background check, complete an interview before they are accepted as an advocate and trained. Following training they are introduced to the people they will be working with, including judges, caseworkers and the child.

"We ask hard questions. Not that there is a right or wrong answer, necessarily, but they are going to be dealing with difficult subjects," Bowcut said. "We recruit, screen and train all of our volunteers. They have to have 30 hours of training by National CASA Association before they can even begin. We are not going asking them to do something without giving them all the tools they need to be successful."

CASA volunteers have the ability to focus on one or two children through the completion of a case, differing in many ways from a caseworker, both in the number of cases managed and the duration of the relationship.

Advocates provide a unique perspective that others involved in the case may not have, and combined with access to every bit of information, they can provide a recommendation based, not necessarily on the child's wishes, but on what is best for the child – including the hopes of each child.

How effective is the program?

"Some of the things that research has shown is that children are moved less if an advocate is involved, they do better in school, they find placement longer," Bowcut said. "There will be less fighting,less depression, less bullying, and a lower likelihood of the child returning into the system. We see more services ordered for the child."

Goals for the program include the health, safety, permanency and well-being of the child.

My current goal is just to introduce the organization as an entity inside the community, according to Bowcut. With two volunteer advocates already on board, Bowcut is looking forward to making a difference locally.

"It is really about building community relationships. I want to talk about the impact on community, because that is something that is really powerful. When a child has been abused or neglected, sometimes, later on, they can repeat that behavior. We are talking about the most vulnerable children in our community. So we talk about an advocate coming in, being an advocate, a mentor, teaching them resiliency, potentially being their friends for life and we are talking about developing the community of Kimball," she said. "We are changing the impact on the community through the impact on one, vulnerable child. This is a positive way we can prevent a child from repeating these things later on. One person, who is trained, from our community impact a child from our community. We can have one person impact that child positively."

Bowcut is offering a Coffee with CASA at 10 a.m., on Monday, April 3, at Java Blend.

"I am just explaining to people what we do," Bowcut said. "I am not going to ask for volunteers or money. I just want people to know what we do in, and for, the community."