story by Cathi Douglas
image by Jeanine Hill
It was Christmas Eve. The little boys were scared. Taken from their parents for the second time because of abuse and neglect, the pair waited in a courtroom full of strangers to hear their fate.
Then, suddenly, there were friendly faces amongst the strangers. Their court-appointed volunteer advocates, a married couple, had arrived. "I TOLD you they'd be here," the older boy said. The two boys visibly relaxed and the hearing began.
Scenes like this one replay in the halls of Orange County Juvenile Court, where CASA volunteers and their young charges meet. CASA‚Court-Appointed Special Advocates for children‚based in Santa Ana, pairs more than 350 volunteers with about 400 severely abused or neglected children each year. The volunteers will devote more than 60,000 hours to both spend time with the children and to represent their interests among the agencies and entities involved in their care and education.
Louise Hall read about CASA in a newspaper article and was immediately taken with the idea of working with the organization. Five years later, she is one of two program directors for CASA, which has served more than 2,500 children in its 20 years of existence.
To Hall, who had been a full-time mom, dental hygienist and church secretary, among many other paid and unpaid careers, the work at CASA is extraordinarily fulfilling. "These children are my passion," she says. "Our volunteers are the one familiar person they see‚the one person they can count on."
In order to work for the organization, Hall first needed to go back to college to get her degree. While studying sociology, she found Cal State Fullerton a pleasant experience.
"Going back to college as an adult is an exercise in esteem-building," Hall said. "I'm using the knowledge from my classes every day. Some of my favorite courses were in American studies, Afro-Ethnic studies and Chicana and Chicano studies‚not part of my major, but all outstanding because they opened my mind."
Her coursework has paid off, although not literally. "If you want to make a mark on the world and help people, this is the area to work in. We get to help people every single day."
www.casaoc.org
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