MAKING CHILDREN’S VOICES HEARD

Retired educator leads local court-appointed special advocate volunteer program

By DEVAN FILCHAK

Ginny Vogel, a retired guidance counselor from Bluffton-Harrison Elementary, is now the program director for CASA of Wells County. CASA stands for court-appointed special advocate, and the volunteers will work with children who are in “Child in Need of Services” cases in Wells County. (Photo by Devan Filchak)

After retiring from Bluffton-Harrison Elementary, Ginny Vogel decided to look into becoming a court-appointed special advocate through the CASA program in Allen County.

She had been interested in the program for a long time, but she had no idea then that she would eventually be the program director for the first-ever Wells County chapter.

In chapters of CASA across the county, volunteer special advocates are trained to be assigned to “Child in Need of Services” — or CHINS, for short — cases going through the court system.

CHINS cases generally pertain to cases where children have been neglected or abused. Children in CHINS cases can be in-home cases or out-of-home cases, where the child is currently living with relatives or a foster family.

“It’s a place where people can volunteer to be a voice for children or teens to the court,” Vogel said, adding that the goal is to get children in CHINS cases placed in “a safe and permanent home as timely as possible.”

The National CASA website states that an average of 271,800 children are helped across the country each year.

Providing a fact-based picture

CASA volunteers spend time with the child or children in the case; talk with all interested parties, such as the Department of Child Services case worker; and write fact-based reports that are turned into the judge prior to each hearing. CASA volunteers also attend each court hearing and family team meetings.

Vogel said the work comes down to balancing what the child wants in the case and what is best for the child, which can be difficult.

“I think that’s why it is important that you don’t just spend time with the child,” Vogel said. “You spend time with the DCS case worker, you talk to all the interested parties. You have access to all of the court documents that are filed in the case. Therefore, our reports are fact based, and we will just try to sift through the information and help the court see what the child wants and also what is happening in the child’s life.”

CASA volunteers work alongside certain things DCS workers do too, such as explaining to the child what is going on in the court hearings, but the CASA program remains an independent entity, Vogel said.

Vogel was familiar with CASA programs due to sorority-related philanthropy she did in college. When she started looking into the program in Allen County to be a volunteer, she was connected with Wells County Circuit Court Judge Kent Kiracofe, who had been interested in starting a local CASA program for a while.

Currently, Kiracofe assigns guardian ad litems to CHINS cases as he deems appropriate, so cases haven’t been going uncovered as the CASA program gets up and running in Wells County.

Kiracofe announced the program in July and shared that County Attorney Roy Johnson and City Attorney Tony Crowell had worked out a lease agreement for the CASA office to operate out of an office on the second floor of City Hall for free. Vogel said that has already had a tremendous impact on the volunteer program.

Kiracofe then told the Wells County Council in August that he hopes to fund the volunteer program with some of the funding he currently uses to hire guardian ad litems.

A great fit

Vogel worked as a guidance counselor at BHES for 23 years prior to her retirement, and she had worked as a teacher at the school prior to that. She was selected as the Bluffton-Harrison Metropolitan School District Educator of the Year in 2019 for her work. In a 2019 News-Banner report about the honor, Vogel talked about the importance of being a voice for children as a guidance counselor.

That is exactly what CASA volunteers do for children, so she had the experience from her career for that part of the job, Vogel said.

“It kind of goes right along with I feel like as educators, we try to be advocates for children in the education system too,” Vogel said. “We try to help kids thrive and that’s what a CASA does too is to try to help kids thrive.”

However, learning about the court system is a brand new experience for Vogel. She said working with Kiracofe has made the experience enjoyable.

“He really cares about kids and families, so it makes it easy to work with him,” she said.

Wells County CASA advocates will work solely in Kiracofe’s court since that is where all of the local CHINS cases go. It’s about providing Kiracofe with as much information about the case as possible.

“Obviously, he can either listen to what we are advocating for or not. At least he has a little information from another point of view — hopefully the child’s point of view,” Vogel said.

Vogel is currently undergoing her own training to be a program director now. Someone through the state CASA program is training Vogel alongside the director for the Huntington County program, which is also forming for the first time.

Seeking more volunteers

The goal for the Wells CASA program is to have 15-16 volunteers by the end of 2021, Vogel said. She currently has five volunteers, aside from herself.

Each CASA volunteer has to complete 30 hours of training and four hours of courtroom observation. The training used to be done in person in existing chapters, but the training is now done virtually — half through independent study and half through debriefings that are done through Zoom video chats.

The training includes content about the court system and how to build relationships and communicate with children based on their developmental level.

Volunteers are required to be 21 years or older, able to pass a background check, and able to provide their own transportation to get to meetings. They are also required to have basic computer skills to use the CASA data entry program after being trained.

“The most important requirement is having a heart for kids,” Vogel said.

Volunteers also have to have flexible work schedules. Most meetings can be scheduled outside of the work day, but Vogel said it’s important that volunteers can get out of work for court hearings and family team meetings.

According to the state CASA organization, volunteers spend an average of eight hours a month on the program once training is over. However, Vogel said the workload can vary a lot, such as if a volunteer is working with a family with one infant verses if they are working with a family with six children.

They also have to do four hours of training to freshen up their skills annually.

Volunteers go through an application and interview process. Once approved, they are sworn in at the circuit court before they start taking on CHINS cases.

Vogel said she thinks the work that CASA volunteers do overall is incredibly important.

“I just think that the court is making life-changing decisions for children and families, not just in Wells County but across the nation,” she said. “I think it is important for the court to have as much as info as possible upon which they can base these decisions. Therefore, I think a child’s voice is important.”

devan@news-banner.com

Interested?

If you’re interested in becoming a CASA volunteer or would like more information about the program, contact Director Ginny Vogel at 260-273-9877 or by email at ginnyvogel24@gmail.com