Volunteers sought to aid child welfare

HOT SPRINGS -- About 40 percent of children in Arkansas' child welfare system don't receive the assistance they need, according to Justin Buck, executive director of Garland County Court Appointed Special Advocates.

"Our child welfare system in the entire state of Arkansas is absolutely underfunded and overburdened," Buck said.

In Garland, Hot Spring and Grant counties, CASA was able to serve about 200 children last year. Since January, 60 children have been served in Garland County. Each court-appointed special advocate works one case at a time for 12 to 15 months. With the surplus of cases, however, CASA is in need of an additional 15 to 20 volunteers for Garland County.

"So right now, we really serve about 60 percent of the cases that would warrant [an advocate]," Buck said. "We try to prioritize children who were victims of crime and then children who have been removed from their homes."

Though each child receives a case worker, a CASA volunteer helps ensure that the child receives the resources appointed by the judge, such as therapy sessions, and meets with them to track their progress. Volunteers also check on the parents as they complete mandated courses that can include anger management, parenting and drug rehabilitation classes.

"At the staff meeting, all the parties [the Arkansas Department of Human Services worker, the advocate, the parents' attorney, the child's attorney and the DHS attorney] involved get together and see how the case is going. What is the best next move? That is where the [advocate] may say things like, 'I want to let everyone know that Mom is doing really well on her case plan, but apparently Dad has had a relapse and is testing dirty for this drug and he has been failing to make it to his meetings,'" Buck said.

About one in seven children is a victim of physical, sexual or drug abuse, and a lack of therapeutic services for children can lead to learning problems and mental disabilities, according to Buck.

"Cases that have [advocates] are 60 percent more likely to have a permanent resolution. Those kids are tons more likely to do things like graduate from high school and enter college," Buck said. "The success rate for our CASA cases is much higher than those without one. So it is real important that we get enough volunteers to be able to serve 100 percent of these kids."

In Garland County, the Human Services Department works about 120 to 180 cases, but it only has 17 foster care homes available to place children. Additional homes are needed, as well as volunteer advocates. CASA also accepts donations and can turn a $1 donation into $3 with federal and state funding. The agency receives some support from organizations like United Way, but its primary source of funding is individual donations.

"It takes about 10 to 12 hours a month to get it done and to do a good job," Buck said. "We have volunteers who work full-time, retired or full time students. So we have volunteers of all walks of life. We are only serving 60 percent of the kids. That means last year 40 percent of the kids in the system had to navigate it by themselves."

More information on CASA is available at (501) 321-9269 or at www.garlandcountycasa.org.

Metro on 07/25/2016

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