A Conversation With ... Amanda Byrd

What is Court Appointed Special Advocates of Southwest Missouri?
We are a nonprofit organization, and we train community volunteers to advocate for children who are in the foster care system. Volunteers go through a 30-hour training program and are sworn in by the Greene County Juvenile Court judge, and then they get appointed to a case, which is a child or (a group of) children who have been removed from (a home) in Greene County and are in foster care. They continue on that case until it’s closed, advocating for the child or children.

Attorneys, or guardians ad litem, represent the children in foster care. How do CASA volunteers advocate for the children?
Our volunteers are just concerned about the child’s best interests. … They make sure (the children’s) medical needs are being met, and their dental needs. They can meet with school counselors to make sure their grades are where they should be, or if there are any special needs. … Sometimes, that means being the squeaky wheel, and to keep bringing something up until something gets done about it.

How many volunteers do you have now, and how many does CASA need?
I believe we’re at 111 volunteers. We don’t even serve a quarter of the children in foster care in Greene County.

We can use as many volunteers as we can get. (For the children without CASA), their cases continue on just like any other case, but they just don’t have that extra person to be their eyes and ears, bringing things to the team’s attention.

We currently are serving about 250 children. We would like to grow to 150 volunteers and 350 children within the next year.

What are your requirements for volunteers?
Our volunteers have to be 21 years of age, and they need to have a high school diploma or equivalent. They cannot be a foster parent or a caseworker, and they cannot have any kind of criminal history or child abuse-neglect history. Other than, that, there’s no maximum age. … They can have any kind of (career).

What’s expected of CASA volunteers?
Every month varies a little bit, but they can average up to 10 hours a month working on their case. … We do ask our volunteers to visit the children twice a month, in person, so they always have that one-on-one time with them, but they can see them more often. … Our CASA volunteers (also) visit with the biological families (the children) were removed from at least once a month.
Typically, the goal is always reunification with the family they were removed from, if at all possible. There are some circumstances when that can’t happen, but that’s always the goal, to get the parents the help they need and get them back home.

With expenses of $3,033 to train one CASA volunteer, how else can the business community help?
They can absolutely help us financially. We’re able to serve more children if we have more volunteers, and to do that, we have to have the finances to support them. Through the Friend of a Child Club, we do have sponsorships for individuals, agencies and companies, and there are different levels that they can donate. There are other ways they can volunteer their time if that’s what they want to give.
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