|
 Back
to the home page
Lee
Ann Duver & Sue Midyett - Mi CASA es Su CASA
by Lynda Wheeler, KARSP Community Service
DCARSP -
Douglas County Association of Retired School
Personnel - is fortunate to have among its members
two very dedicated CASA – Court Appointed Special
Advocate - volunteers. Sue Midyett and
Lee Ann Duver. Both ladies are retired school
teachers and have a natural talent with kids so they
are a perfect fit for the program. After
retirement both found they still wanted to be
involved with kids and tried substituting, but it
didn’t give them the kind of connections they
craved. Discovering CASA and becoming involved has
added a new positive dimension to their lives.
Becoming
a CASA volunteer requires commitment. Having a
background check, attending extensive training
classes, signing confidentiality papers are among
the protocol. You meet with, or are in contact
with, most people involved with the cases: family
members, teachers, attorneys, foster parents, and
caseworkers. You attend case planning sessions,
Citizen Review Board meetings, Court hearings, and
write a monthly report prior to a court appearance.
A CASA worker must participate in some form of
educational update annually in order to remain
eligible as a CASA volunteer.
After
completing the CASA training Lee Ann was given her
first assignment. Two young brothers, ages seven
and nine, who were abandoned at the police station
and placed in foster care. After three years in the
system, seven foster homes in three different
cities, and multiple caseworkers, the boys were
finally placed in a loving and welcoming home
environment. CASA volunteers feel a great sense of
accomplishment when they are able to see their cases
through to positive outcomes. Other than
volunteering with CASA Lee Ann serves on the Board
of the League of Women Voters and the Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute at Kansas University.
With five
children and twelve grandchildren you would think
Sue would get enough strokes from working with
children. However, Sue has chosen to share her
skills and talents with children who do not always
have a mother or grandmother to advocate for them.
The cases she is assigned through CASA help replace
the strokes she used to get from her students and
are an extension of her lifelong avocation of
working with children. Sue also works at KU with a
kindergarten research project in addition to her
CASA volunteering.
Both Sue
and Lee Ann express how fulfilling this involvement
is and say it would be a very rewarding endeavor for
anyone. You get to speak for the children and are
often the only constant in their world to whom they
can express their concerns, frustrations, anger,
wishes, and hopes.
"To give
a child a CASA is to give them a voice. To give them
a voice is to give them hope, and to give them hope
is to give them the world. I believe that with all
my heart._ —Pamela Butler (a quote from Pam’s
testimony on how much her CASA worker meant to her
life in the Nov. 2008 Dg. Co. CASA newsletter)
Kansas Association of Retired School Personnel
515 Kansas Ave., Ste 201.
Topeka, KS 66603-3415
Phone: 785-232-8788
K.A.R.S.P@hotmail.com
|
