CASA for Lancaster County (casa4lancaster.org) is seeking volunteers. A training session for new volunteers is set to begin on October 10. This is a six-week training course held on Tuesday nights from 6 to 9 p.m. All training sessions will be held at CASA for Lancaster County, 1141 H St., STE C on the third floor.
CASA volunteers are trained community advocates who are assigned to abused/neglected children who are in Juvenile Court through no fault of their own. CASA volunteers have a court order that gives them access to the child and to all of their records so that the CASA volunteer can carry out an objective, systematic examination of the situation and determine the needs of the child. This is done by interviewing all interested and concerned parties to determine the facts and reviewing all records and documents.
CASA volunteers get to know the child and they communicate the child’s wishes to the judge. CASA volunteers are required to attend approximately 30 hours of pre-service training and 12 hours of in-service (continuing education) annually and are supervised by a CASA staff person.
In 2022, CASA served 296 children, trained 40 new volunteers and had 127 volunteers assigned to children. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a volunteer or about CASA for Lancaster County, go to casa4lancaster.org.