Helping a Family Stay Together. . .

The Robinson family became involved with the family court and the CASA program when the children stopped attending school. When Kenneth, the youngest child, missed a week of kindergarten his concerned school counselor visited the home. What the counselor found was a house without food, not enough beds for all six children, and unsanitary conditions including mice and raw sewage backing up in the bathtub. The children’s mother had struggled with mental health issues her whole life. When she was on her medication, she was fine, but she had recently lost her job and gone off her medication, impacting her ability to care for her children. Child Protective Services tried to help Ms. Robinson access services for her and her children but when she failed to do so the kids were removed. The six children were placed in three different foster homes. Luckily for the children, the Judge assigned three CASA volunteers to their case.

Michelle and Keisha, the oldest siblings felt responsible for their younger sisters and brother and were extremely angry with their mother. Their CASA met with the adolescent sisters and listened patiently to their concerns, but what she heard through the anger were the voices of two girls who loved their mother. The CASA arranged for the girls to begin attending family counseling with their mother. Soon the four younger children joined the weekly therapy sessions. In the meantime, the three CASA volunteers made sure that the children were all doing well in school.

They worked with the school system to provide tutoring for the children after school in order to catch up on all the content they had missed while home with their mom. By the time the children reunified with their mother, the family had completed family counseling successfully. Ms. Robinson had addressed her mental health issues and was following up with all services she and the children had in place thanks to the support of their CASA volunteers.

Are you ready to change a child’s story as a CASA volunteer?.