November 12, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
DeKalb County needs community volunteers to become part of an effort to advocate for and promote the best interests of abused and neglected children in DeKalb County working with the juvenile court system.
Through the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program, volunteers, just like you, stand up for and speak out to help children who have been abused and neglected. Advocates work to ensure that the court recognizes these children’s right to a safe, loving, and permanent home.
The mission of CASA is to recruit and train volunteers to give a voice to abused children within the juvenile court system and become the local leader in advocacy by educating the public as to the scope and availability of the services for the protection of children.
DeKalb County General Sessions and Juvenile Court Judge Brandon Cox has announced a community meeting to introduce the program on Tuesday, November 19 from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. at the county complex. All interested are urged to attend.
Tennessee currently has 20,000 vulnerable children waiting for CASA volunteers to support them in their search for a safe, loving and permanent home. CASA is part of a network of 951 CASA programs across the country.
Volunteer advocates—empowered directly by the courts—offer judges the critical information they need to ensure that each child’s rights and needs are being attended to while in foster care.
Volunteers help children until they are placed in loving permanent homes. For many abused children, a CASA volunteer is the only constant adult presence in their lives.
Judge Cox said a DeKalb County CASA program will be an extension of Cannon County CASA.
“We are trying to bring Court appointed special advocates into DeKalb County,” said Judge Cox. “CASA is in several counties around us including Rutherford, Cannon, and Warren County and this one in DeKalb County would be expanded out of Cannon County. Its grant funded with community partners.
“CASA is basically a volunteer program in which members of the community can become trained and involved in the juvenile court system mainly with children who are dependent and neglected or abused. Volunteers are trained to be advocates for the kids and help get involved in their lives while assisting the court system as best we can to reunify or get the children some permanency. It’s a really helpful program. We have not had it here before but it’s a way of getting our community involved in these cases with vulnerable kids,” explained Judge Cox.
“We are having an initial meeting on November 19 at the county complex. Its an introductory meeting as to what the program is all about as well as the training expected of volunteers. It will take six to eight months to get everybody trained and everything up and running. I’m excited because we have more and more kids involved with DCS and the foster care system with few available resources. This is another tool we can use in our court system to hopefully help these kids,” said Judge Cox.
To RSVP for the community meeting on November 19 scan the QR code shown here. For further information visit www.beforthechild.org