CASA's Mission is to train and recruit community volunteers to advocate for abused and/or neglected children within the 16th Judicial District which is made up of Iberia, St. Martin and St. Mary Parishes. We are looking for dedicated individuals that are willing to donate their time to help children within their community find a safe and permanent home. National CASA has started a Champaign as a result of the pandemic which called #EyesOnChildren this Champaign was created to bring awareness to the impact COVID 19 has had on children from hard places. Parents are now under more financial and emotional stress, those stressors have historically fueled a rise in child abuse and neglect. And unfortunately, at the same time, children are no longer in the public eye- they are not at school, they are not able to attend daycare in some cases. Or they are just generally not out in public where caring individuals could spot the signs of abuse and neglect.
Our volunteers work directly with the children that have already experienced abuse or neglect.
Normally they would meet with the children at least once a month, but with COVID they have had to get a little creative. They are temporarily doing virtual visits. During these visits information is gathered and relayed to the judges to help them make the most well-informed decision for each child.
For the training we have also converted to a virtual format for the time being. We are hoping to have our next class start around the 2nd week of June. But we have a new training class every other month or so.
