North County High School alum Xavier Davis remembers taking a limo to his senior prom almost 20 years ago.
Jack Walsh, his court-appointed special advocate, made sure the milestone celebration was memorable. Davis said Walsh paid for everything, from the chauffered ride for him and his date to the prom pictures. He even took the couple out to eat.
For Davis, this meant everything. “I wasn’t used to people going above and beyond when it came to me,” he said.
For Anne Arundel County CASA Executive Director Rebecca Tingle, Davis’ story is one of many that have resulted from the organization’s efforts to pair abused or neglected children in the county with volunteer advocates who can help ensure they are placed in a safe, stable permanent home.
Part of a national organization, Anne Arundel County CASA is one of 15 CASA programs in the state. Other CASA programs in Maryland include CASA of Baltimore City, CASA of Baltimore County, CASA of Carroll County, CASA of Harford County and Voices For Children in Howard County.
“This is a very unique volunteer role,” Tingle said. “I mean, it’s a professional, weighty role where the volunteers are making huge differences in the lives of the children that they are connected with.”
Davis, now 36 and an advocate himself in Baltimore, said Walsh was “the best person” he ever met. He said Walsh called him his grandson and was involved in his life, from making sure he had a cellphone to being his champion in court.
“There was nothing he would not do for me,” Davis said.
Tingle said the nonprofit trains and then assigns volunteers to cases where a parent or guardian has been accused of abusing or neglecting their child. With guidance from CASA staff, the volunteer, or court-appointed special advocate, gets to know the child they are assigned to and ensures any court-ordered services — such as parenting classes for the parent or therapy for the child — are being provided.
Tingle said advocates will build relationships with their child, taking them to lunch, the movies or a nail salon.
Eventually, the advocate will author a report for the judge or magistrate assigned to the child’s case, giving recommendations on where the child should be placed and other matters within the court’s purview.
“[We are] the eyes and ears for the court because the judges and magistrates can’t go into the homes of these families,” Tingle said.
When it comes time for a judge or magistrate to make a decision, they will often read the CASA report before hearing from anyone else, she said.
“Because they know that we don’t leave anything out and our court report is going to be the most comprehensive, unbiased picture of what is going on,” Tingle said.
Since opening its doors in 1997, Anne Arundel County CASA has grown.
Tingle said the nonprofit started with 20 volunteers and has increased to 66 this year. She said the number of children served has jumped from 28 in 1997 to 94 now.
The organization, which has a fiscal 2026 budget of $684,241, has a goal of providing a volunteer for each foster child in the county. Tingle said it currently serves about 68% of the county’s foster care population.
Memorable connections
About a decade ago, Anne Arundel County CASA board member and former volunteer advocate Pat Howe got a phone call from a man she had been an advocate for when he was a teenager.
Howe, who didn’t give details about the man for confidentiality reasons, said she recognized the voice on the line. She said the then-teenager — now an adult with a job — told her that years after she was assigned to his case, he still hears her voice in his head and remembers the things she would tell him. He thanked her, she said.
“I was so grateful that he called,” she said. “I was so grateful that he was doing well. It kind of makes it all worth it.”
Howe, an artist and retired high school art teacher, said that advocates will come across adults who don’t act in a child’s best interest.
“You see a lot of things that hit you to the core,” she said. “And you figure out what you can do to help them manage it because that’s their life.”
Tingle said the children CASA works with “face a plethora of issues,” from mental health problems to behavioral issues to developmental disorders.
Howe said she became a volunteer because her children had grown up and she felt like she “still had a lot to give.”
Davis said he got involved with CASA as an adult to give back. He said he feels like he owes it to his former advocate Walsh, who has since died.
“By way of Jack, there have been countless doors that have opened for me,” he said.
As an advocate, Davis tries to give the children he advocates for “a Jack experience,” he said.
Filling in the holes
Unlike social workers, who take on a number of cases at once, the advocates with CASA are generally assigned to one case at a time, Tingle said.
“We become a team with Social Services and sort of fill in the holes,” she said. “We do what we can to make sure that the court system manages and handles these situations in the best interest of the child, not just checking boxes.”
Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services Director Rachael Maconachy said the department values its partnership with CASA. She said the collaboration “serves and uplifts so many children and families.”
Tingle said the nonprofit has worked to ensure it is “widely accepted” by the court and seen as a collaborator with other agencies in the cases.
Shanta Trivedi, an assistant law professor and director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts at the University of Baltimore School of Law, said she thinks everyone who volunteers with CASA “deeply cares” about the children.
“What you think is in the child’s best interest versus what I think is in the child’s best interest could be vastly different,” she said, adding that factors such as class, race, culture and lifestyle can affect that determination.
Trivedi said the majority of children in the welfare system are low-income and minorities while a lot of people who volunteer with the national CASA organization are white and middle class.
“That always gives me pause when people are advocating for a best interest because it’s through your own lens,” she said.
Tingle said Anne Arundel County CASA has a range of volunteers. She said the ages of advocates range from people in their 20s to people in their 60s and beyond. She said that last fiscal year, 84% of volunteers were white and 36% were 60 or older.
She said that before becoming a volunteer advocate, a person must interview, pass a background test and go through a five-week training program. She said the average length of a case is about three years and some can take 10 years.
“It is a commitment,” Tingle said.
For Howe, it’s all worth it.
“It’s fabulous to feel like we’re really making a difference in these kids’ lives,” she said.
Have a news tip? Contact Maggie Trovato at mtrovato@baltsun.com, 443-890-0601 or on X @MaggieTrovato.
from Baltimore Sun https://ift.tt/q0dFbzO
via IFTTT
