CASA in Placerville and Travel to Pismo Beach

We made it to Pismo Beach today!  See Dave's blog for the full story of our ten day stay at DeMartini RV while we got several motorhome repairs done.  Everything is fixed (we hope) and we left Grass Valley at 7:30 am this morning and arrived at Pismo Coast Village by 3:30 pm.  This is the park where Margie and Bruce were stockholders and were staying when they were killed.  It's bittersweet being here and, of course, we are thinking of them.

In the meantime, while we settle into the Pismo Beach area, I'll share another sight we saw during our walk along Placerville's historic main street, which was the following sign for their local CASA branch.  I occasionally see this national CASA symbol of arms raised to form a heart during our travels.  It always warms my heart to see that CASA is active in these towns.

My own CASA volunteer work has been on hold lately.  I fininished up a three year case in October, and haven't taken on a new case yet.  I got a little burned out while working on such a long case.  In addition, I knew we would be doing a lot of traveling this fall and winter, and it's hard to do a good job advocating for children when I'm not home to do the interviewing, attend court dates, etc.

Festive banners displayed in Placerville

Now if they would just say "Merry Christmas"!

More about CASA

Today I went to a Reasonable Efforts Symposium.  The subtitle was "Best Practices in Dependency".  This program is funded by a grant from the Washington State Courts and is part of the Court Improvement Program.  When I went to this symposium last year, the title sounded like a lot of gobbledy gook.  I didn't realize that all the professionals involved in the dependency court process were represented at the symposium.  That includes the commissioners and judges, attorneys for the parents, social workers for the parents, social workers for the children, the assistant attorney generals who represent the state, psychologists, foster parents, and of course, CASAs and GALs (Guardian ad Litems).

The symposium is held in Longview, WA, each year and people from the counties of Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania, Pacific, and Wahkiakum participated.  This year's theme was "Colliding Ethics...a Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Ethics and Dependency".  The presentations and discussions were pretty interesting.  The theme last year was "Purposeful Visitation".  I didn't like that discussion as well, partly because I had already heard the main speaker at a Washington State CASA Conference that I had attended. 

There were about 10 CASAs from Clark County at the Symposium and I felt honored to be among them.  It was a stimulating experience!  Click here for more information about the Court Improvement Program and click here for videos of part of symposium from prior years.

CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate)

This afternoon I worked on my CASA review report which is due in a week or two.  CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate.  I am one of many volunteers who report to the court on behalf of the best interest of children who have been removed from their homes because of neglect or abuse.  The children may be placed with  relatives, or foster homes, or sometimes with a non-custodial parent.  The child becomes a dependent of the state, and the court proceedings are called dependency court.  Each case can last anywhere from a month to several years or more. 

To learn more about the CASA program that I work with, click here.