Athens- Oconee CASA is seeking more volunteers for the program. CASAs, or Court Appointed Special Advocates, work on behalf of children in foster care. Susi Weller is Executive Director of the organization. She says this year; 15 volunteers are attending the state conference in Cobb County Saturday.
“The Georgia CASA community is a thriving community,” according to Weller. “CASA is a national program and Georgia is one of the better state on the state level. We have a staff for the state, they provide trainings, and support and networking and marketing materials. They’re a wonderful backbone to help us all do what we need to do for children in foster care.”
The Georgia CASA Conference will provide more in-depth information, in addition to the 40 hours of training they already receive.
“It’s great to share this information with e people on the front lines. There’ll be a lot talking about juvenile law, best practices in the court, how to work with traumatized children and parents, different cultural and diversity concepts.”
The Georgia CASA Conference will feature workshops, luncheon, collaboration networking opportunities with other CASAs.
“We require 12 hours of in-service throughout the year and this is a part of that, but they also get to network with other CASAs from around the state.”
Weller says only 30 percent of the more than 300 hundred area children in foster care have CASAs.
