2022 CASA Volunteer Survey Response

A letter from the Executive Director

Melynda Jamison

Hello CASA Volunteers,

Thank you to each of you who took the time to complete the volunteer survey this year! Some of the staff and I have looked over the feedback and discussed ways to implement suggestions to make improvements. We wanted to share with you some things in the works thanks to your feedback.

You can read through all our responses below, or use the index to jump to a part that interests you. Bolded entries in the index will be of particular interest to most if not all CASA volunteers.

We are truly blessed to have each one of you working to make the future better for your CASA children!

Sincerely,

Melynda Jamison, CASA of Lexington Executive Director


 

System Improvements

Self-Logging Volunteer Hours

Many of you expressed a desire to more easily log and see your CEU hours for the year. A big change coming this year will make that possible, while also streamlining and simplifying logging of all volunteer hours.

We are happy to announce that beginning later this year, CASA volunteers will begin logging their own volunteer hours in our system! Each CASA volunteer will have their own login, which will allow them to log their own hours spent in court, visiting children, etc. You will no longer need to submit your hours to your Volunteer Manager!

Each volunteer will also be able to log their own CEU hours as they complete them and see how many they have earned whenever they like.

Trainings for existing volunteers on how to log your hours will be announced soon - these trainings will also count toward your CEU hours for the year! Watch for an email announcing the trainings, which will allow you to RSVP for a session that works with your schedule.

Building the CASA Community

Many of you told us you want more opportunities to connect with your fellow CASA volunteers. And you had some great ideas for different events to make it happen! This year, we’ll be trying out several ideas from you and our staff, including:

Meet-Up at Bourbon and the Bayou

All CASA volunteers with tickets to this year’s Bourbon and the Bayou will also have the highest level of premium access — the same as our biggest sponsors! CASA volunteers can arrive at 6 p.m., half an hour earlier than regular ticket-holders. They can also take advantage of premium bourbon tastings and visit the VIP lounge for a CASA volunteer meet-up at 6:30 p.m.

Social Get-Togethers

We’re planning to offer many different ways to get together with other CASA volunteers throughout 2023:

reunions for volunteers from the same training classes or same range of years served;

  • a “snack-luck” — a potluck of snacks held at our Lexington office;

  • a return of the CASA book club;

  • another chance to hike the Pinnacles in Berea; and

  • social activities like eating out at a restaurant or a painting party.

You can see all of the events scheduled on our Everyone at 12 CEU incentives page, since every one of the events is going to double for CEU credit!

Presidential Volunteer Service Awards

One upcoming opportunity to meet and celebrate with other CASA volunteers is our series of ceremonies honoring the CASA volunteers who earned a Presidential Volunteer Service Award in 2022. These events are open to the public and you can attend to support, celebrate and talk with other CASA volunteers, whether or not you earned a PVSA. Local elected officials such as mayors and/or judge-executives, as well as our family court judges, will be in attendance!

  • March 9, 6 p.m.: Fayette County PVSA ceremony, during the LFUCG council meeting at the Fayette County government center.

  • March 13, 4 p.m.: Jessamine County PVSA ceremony at the Jessamine County Courthouse

  • March 20, 12 p.m.: Garrard County PVSA ceremony at the Garrard County Courthouse

  • March 22, 11 a.m.: Scott County PVSA ceremony at the Scott County Courthouse

  • March 28, 4:30 p.m.: Bourbon County PVSA ceremony at Paris City Hall

  • March 29, 12 p.m.: Woodford County PVSA ceremony at the Versailles Police Department

Continuing Education

Court Observation

Beginning this year, CASA of Lexington volunteers will be able to count time they spend observing in family court before and/or after their case is heard toward their Continuing Education hours. New volunteers who want to complete an additional court observation beyond the required one can also count that second observation toward their CEUs for the year.

In order to count court observation time toward your CEUs, simply fill out our CEU credit form. This process will change when volunteers begin self-logging their court and CEU hours (see Self-Logging Volunteer Hours above).

More Trainings You Want

Every year, we also get great ideas for continuing education topics from your survey responses. This year, you went above and beyond with the ideas. While we won’t be able to offer all of these topics this year, you can watch for offerings this year and into future years on:

  • frequently utilized and/or needed services and resources for children and families in the community;

  • understanding drug testing and drug reports;

  • mental health and suicide prevention;

  • communication skills, court report writing skills and effective ways to work with DCBS; and

  • navigating conversations with older CASA youth.

In addition, we heard that you would like to see more evening trainings, and we are working to accomplish this for upcoming CEUs whenever possible.

Note: Some of you said you love in-person trainings and don’t care for virtual ones; others said you love the ease and flexibility of virtual trainings. We plan to continue offering both options whenever possible, including hybrid trainings which you can choose to attend in-person or virtually through Zoom.

CEU Options

There are lots of different ways to earn your CEU credits and many of you told us you would like to be more informed about what can count. In response, we plan to continue including various recommendations on ways to earn your CEUs in our monthly emails. And we are going to keep growing our online repository of all the different CEU options out there.

You can help us in this endeavor by recommending documentaries, books, podcasts, TV shows and movies for inclusion in our pre-approved CEU lists: simply email info@casaoflexington.org with your recommendation and we will review it for possible addition.

Here are useful links for finding and accessing CEU-approved content:

Main CASA of Lexington CEU directory: www.casaoflexington.org/education

List of pre-approved documentaries, movies and TV shows: www.casaoflexington.org/shows

Calendar of upcoming live CEU opportunities: www.casaoflexington.org/ceu-calendar

In Case You Didn’t Know…

You all touched on many different topics and issues in your survey responses. We’ve compiled additional responses and information you requested in the answers below. You can always ask for additional information on any topic from your Volunteer Manager or by emailing info@casaoflexington.org.

  • The requirement of 12 CEU hours for each CASA volunteer is set by the National CASA Association and CASA of Lexington cannot modify it; we also cannot change the limit of 4 hours for CEU credit from reading books. While we cannot change these requirements, we are trying to do everything we can to make it easy for you to access worthwhile CEU opportunities.

  • If you are assigned to a CASA case and do not have one of our CASA Volunteer Handbooks, please ask your Volunteer Manager for one. These are now handed out at case assignment; they contain a lot of valuable information, including a checklist for what to do after being assigned a case, best practices and cheat sheets of information CASA volunteers regularly need to know.

  • If you are a newer volunteer and you would like to learn from a more experienced advocate, you may be able to participate in our Volunteer Mentoring Program. This program pairs experienced CASA volunteers with newer volunteers on a case as a team for a temporary period of time. If you are interested in being a mentor or a mentee, please let your Volunteer Manager know or email jbahr@casaoflexington.org.

  • If you are ever unsure who to contact with CASA, whether due to a staffing change or anything else, you can always email office@casaoflexington.org or call (859) 246-4313. These contact points never change.

  • If you ever feel uncomfortable about a home visit, you can always request that your Volunteer Manager come along with you. You never need to stay at a visit if something is happening that makes you uncomfortable.

  • All of CASA of Lexington’s locations are open to all volunteers. If you are stopping by the Lexington office, you do not need to let us know — that office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except on holidays. If you are stopping by an office in another county, please schedule ahead with your Volunteer Manager to ensure someone will be at the office.

  • If you listed an organization on the survey that you could help connect with CASA, please email info@casaoflexington.org with more information. Because the surveys are anonymous, we are unable to know who provided the answers in most cases.

  • If you feel the concerns or comments you provided in the survey were not addressed by this response, please contact me directly at mjamison@lexingtonky.gov so we can discuss and work toward a solution.

Finally, all the staff wanted to say a big THANK YOU for all the time you invest to help your CASA children! You do amazing work and central Kentucky is a better place because of you!