TULSA, Okla. — A non-profit that trains volunteers to become court-appointed advocates for abused and neglected children is raising money and calling for more volunteers.
One CASA volunteer said it's a very important job, but the organization doesn't have enough people to do it.
Data from the organization suggests that unless they get more help, they may only be able to help one in three children who need it.
“I feel like it was a divine calling from God, for me to advocate for children because their best interest is not always taken into account and that’s what we as CASA’s do,” CASA Volunteer advocate, Paula Watson said.
Paula Watson has spent the last eight years giving her heart and time advocating for children who have been removed from their homes. After working in public schools for forty years, she decided to use that experience to help others.
“We are fact finders who look and try to find facts that maybe the DHS worker will not find," Watson said.
As a CASA advocate, she works closely with the child's foster parents and biological parents, getting to know them to help find the child a home environment where they can thrive.
“And we’re also known as the eyes and ears of the judge,” Watson said.
Throughout her time as an advocate, she has overseen eleven different cases and helped 25 children.
“I’m so happy to say we’ve found their forever home with their foster parents and they’re now living lives that are making them shine,” Watson said.
Watson is one of 46 volunteers in six different counties across Northeast Oklahoma that speak up for children in court, but they could always use more volunteers.
“There’s a lot more foster children that could use an advocate if we had those advocates, so we do need to recruit more,” Resource Development and Marketing Director for CASA said.
Ogle said they could be serving 350 cases, each of those cases representing at least one child. Right now, they are only able to serve 34 percent of them.
Their volunteers have also dropped by 35 percent within the last year.
They said that's in part because many of the advocates often take breaks during the summer.
People with CASA are asking, if you have the heart to help children, please apply.
You can find the application on their website by clicking here.
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