CASA Orange County continues to provide trained volunteers to help abused, neglected and abandoned youth in the foster care system.
There is only one place in Orange County dedicated to helping the most severely abused of the 3,100 youth in the foster care system by providing them court appointed volunteer advocates. CASA, or Court Appointed Special Advocates, has been doing just that for 35 years. With CASA’s commitment to one-on-one relationships with these children means the courts can make better decisions for them. But, the most important outcome for these foster children is that the CASA volunteers provide hope, inspiration and guidance that they need to help them successfully overcome their abusive past and achieve a positive future.
It all started in 1985, when CASA Orange County was founded by the Junior League of Orange County, who raised the funds to develop the program. Today, CASA Orange County is part of a national Court Appointed Special Advocate program consisting of nearly 950 different county and state programs across the U.S. Since 1985, CASA-OC has recruited and trained more than 3,600 volunteers, who have dedicated more than 1.7 million hours to more than 7,000 youth in the foster care system.
Regan Phillips, CEO of CASA Orange County, is an Orange County native, who graduated from Mater Dei High School before completing undergraduate studies in sociology and communications at USC, a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University and her law degree from Chapman University. It was while she was at Columbia that she completed a one-year internship with CASA-NYC.
“That experience convinced me that I wanted to work with kids and advocate for them,” Phillips says. “It also inspired me to go to law school because I felt with a law degree, I might be able do a better job advocating.”
Upon receiving her law degree, Phillips worked as an attorney for the Law Office of Harold LaFlamme, where she was assigned to a trial court department at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange and represented children in the foster care system. She dealt regularly with CASA volunteers in the courtroom to obtain their insight into the child’s life and better advance the interests of the child.
So, it was a natural progression for Phillips to join the CASA-OC board of directors in 2009, later joining the staff as Chief Program Officer and CEO in December, 2017.
Phillips lauds the powerful one-on-one relationships the CASA-OC volunteers have with their charges.
“I have been told by judges that they will read a CASA report by our advocates before they read a social worker’s report. They feel they get a strong sense of who the child is.”
As to the CASA advocates themselves, she says, “I refer to all of our advocates as angels in human form,” she says. “It takes a remarkable individual to make this commitment to a child who has experienced trauma and loss.”
Phillips singles out CASA advocate Pat Cahill, who she says is “just extraordinary.” Going on, she says, “Pat has an incredible heart and an incredible capacity to keep showing up for these kids, which is exactly what they need. She is my hero!”
Cahill, who will be a CASA advocate for 24 years in January and has advocated for 27 youth, says, “I’ve grown up with CASA!” She was introduced to CASA when she was working for a respite care nonprofit, and a CASA volunteer brought in a young boy for a monitored visit with a parent.
“She told me all about CASA, so I called them and signed up for the training. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
“The kids are great,” Cahill continues. “They all have unique needs, and you listen to what they have to say. Sometimes it takes a while but once you build their trust, that’s when they start talking and the comfort level is there. The most important thing is that you are consistent.”
CASA volunteers go through 30 hours of comprehensive training, background checks and an interview before becoming a sworn-in Court Appointed Special Advocate.
Cahill explains. “These kids are dependents of the courts and have an attorney, a social worker and a judge, but they don’t have anyone who is showing up to advocate solely for them.”
After CASA training, according to Cahill, you are given the summaries of three children to choose one. A supervisor then submits your name to the court so you can receive an appointment order for that child. You then visit the child with a case supervisor and set up a visitation schedule with your CASA youth, which is on average twice a month.
“I was matched with a 12-year-old girl, who left the system at 18, and we still keep in touch. She is 29 today.” Cahill says. “Other youth may have shorter times. It depends on the circumstances. The youth can age out of the system at 18, but can stay until 21 or until 24, if they are in college.”
Reunification with the parents can happen if the parents do the planned protocol, which includes parenting classes completed in a certain amount of time.
But, without a CASA, the reality is that one in five former foster youth will become homeless within one year of leaving the system, only 58% will graduate high school and by the age of 24, more than 50% of them will be unemployed.
However, there is a 92% likelihood of foster youth graduating high school with a CASA volunteer. The CASA volunteer provides a powerful voice and a meaningful connection for children who have experienced abuse, neglect and abandonment.
Making all this possible with a $3.5M budget means fundraising. The Friends of CASA auxiliary group, which was also launched by the Junior Leagues of Orange County a few years after CASA-OC was formed, produces the annual Holiday Luncheon & Fashion Show in early December at Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, which raises over $450,000 annually. The nonprofit’s annual Celebration of Children Black & White Ball is set for March 14, 2020 at the Fashion Island Hotel in Newport Beach. The last four years has seen more than $1M in net proceeds raised each time.
This is the first time CASA-OC will be participating in the SDCCU OC Marathon (5K and Half Marathon) on May 2 and 3, 2020 at the OC Fairgrounds with a CASA team formed to raise money for the cause.
The Pinwheel Project, now in its fourth year, is set for May 9 at Fashion Island. It is a visual display on the grass in front of Bloomingdale’s of colored pinwheels representing the number of foster care youth, the number of foster youth with a CASA advocate, and the number of foster youth waiting for a CASA advocate. It has been a successful effort to raise more awareness about CASA during Foster Care Awareness Month.”
Phillips and Cahill sum up the passion they have for CASA. Phillips says, “For me, it’s a true recognition of the fact that birth is a lottery and these kids didn’t do anything to deserve their circumstances. They belong to all of us once they enter the system.”
“As long as I can drive, I will continue to do this,” Cahill says with gusto.