Apply to be a CASA volunteer

Every CASA volunteer commits to serving on average 5-10 hours a month for at least two years, in order to ensure consistency for the children we serve.

A CASA volunteer visits their assigned child monthly. They gather information about the child from people involved in the child’s life, including biological parents, foster parents, relatives, teachers, doctors, therapists, and others.

They read through educational, medical and legal records to gain knowledge of the child’s situation. They write reports summarizing the information they have gathered for everyone involved on the case.

They make recommendations for which actions would be in the best interest of the child.

And they attend court hearings in the child’s case to present their report and recommendations and advocate for the child’s best interests.

CASA volunteers complete a 30-hour initial training, then serve for roughly 5-10 hours per month. New CASA volunteers agree they will plan to serve for at least two years, with the understanding that life events can arise that get in the way.

Once appointed to a child, each CASA volunteer is expected to stay on that child’s case and visit them monthly until the case is closed. Every case is unique, but the average length of a case is around two years. Some cases may last months; others may last years beyond the average.

While serving as a CASA volunteer requires a larger commitment than many other volunteer opportunities, you plan a significant amount of the time you volunteer around your schedule.

Court hearings are the only portion of the work where someone else sets the time and date. Hearings typically occur once every three months, and the date for the hearing is set months in advance.

Child abuse and neglect is a big problem in Kentucky. CASA of Lexington currently serves fewer than 1 out of every 5 cases of child abuse, neglect and dependency that come through our local family court systems every year.

Children who receive a CASA volunteer do better in school, get more services, change placements less frequently and are far less likely to reenter foster care after their cases close.

In order to give every child the CASA advantage, we need more volunteers like you!

To serve as a CASA volunteer, you must be at least 21 years old, pass our background checks and complete our 30-hour new volunteer training class.

You are not required to have any particular level of education, certification or experience in a specific field.

You do need to have a heart for helping children and a willingness to commit to the work.

At CASA of Lexington, a majority of our volunteers also work full-time. We also have significant numbers of retired people and college students serving as CASA volunteers. Fewer than one in five of our volunteers are male — a statistic we are working to change.

CASA of Lexington’s 30-hour trainings for new volunteers are led by our staff of Volunteer Managers, who are also the support staff for active volunteers with cases.

Volunteer Managers go with new volunteers on their first home visits. Volunteer Managers maintain monthly contact with their volunteers and are always available for whenever something unexpected crops up on your case.

Volunteer Managers are trained thoroughly on the court system and supporting services and can always help you identify where to look for information or what resources might be available to help your CASA child.

Volunteer Managers attend court with you and can even present your report to the judge if you are unable to make it to a court hearing. By law, each Volunteer Manager provides support to no more than 30 CASA volunteers at a time.

All CASA of Lexington staff members are sworn and available to support every volunteer as needed. And volunteers also have access to a large library of continuing education trainings, books and more.

If you go through volunteer training with CASA of Lexington, you are able to serve in Bourbon, Fayette, Garrard, Jessamine, Lincoln, Scott or Woodford counties.

While each CASA child’s case will have hearings in one of these counties, the child may be placed in a home or facility elsewhere in the state.

If you are interested in serving in another Kentucky county, please use the Kentucky CASA Network’s inquiry form to get connected with the CASA program in your area.

We will contact you within a few days to provide background check forms and schedule an initial interview. At your initial interview, we will add you to a seat in one of our upcoming training classes.

Once you complete training and observe family court, you will be sworn in by a family court judge and can be matched with an abused or neglected child in need of a CASA volunteer.

No. Going through our initial training is how some people learn that CASA is a perfect fit for them; it’s how others learn that the volunteer role is not for them.

You are welcome to apply and join an upcoming training class even if you’re not 100% sure serving as a CASA volunteer is right for you.

No. We take into account your preferences, experiences and strengths when finding a child we think would match well with you.

Before you accept any case, you have the opportunity to review the case details with a Volunteer Manager. You can say yes or no to accepting the case. Saying no is fine — we will look for another child to match you with.

If you’re interested in becoming a CASA volunteer in the future, you can sign up to receive notifications when we schedule new training classes. You can expect to receive 4-6 emails a year, which you can ignore until you are ready to start the process.

If you want to support CASA’s mission without serving as a CASA volunteer, you can become a Friend of CASA, a donor or a board member.

CASA volunteers often invest more time visiting the child in a case than anyone else in the courtroom. By spending time with the child and developing a relationship with them, they understand better what challenges the child faces and where others may be overlooking problems.

CASA volunteers can help get children more services ordered by the judge. CASA volunteers can help identify safe, permanent options for a child’s placement. And CASA volunteers can help everyone involved better communicate, leading to more complete solutions and reducing the chances a child re-enters the system.

From the personal perspective of the child, a CASA volunteer helps because they are a consistent, positive role model. A child can gain a lot of confidence and hope because their CASA volunteer keeps showing up every month, taking an interest in them, and showing them that they matter.

When a child has to change placements, it is incredibly traumatic. But when their CASA volunteer still visits them in the new placement, it can help heal some of the effects of that trauma.

Social workers are paid staff members of the Department for Community-Based Services (DCBS). They are assigned to dozens of cases at a time involving children who have been abused or neglected.

The social worker sees each child on their cases monthly. In many cases, these visits may last no more than a few minutes. Depending on the county, social workers can have more than 50 cases assigned to them at a time.

The social worker also works with biological parents on case plans for regaining or maintaining custody of their children. The social worker must balance the child’s needs and the parents’ rights in their work.

Attorneys for children, known as guardians ad litem (GALs), can be appointed to many children’s cases at a time. They are professional attorneys whose duty is to advocate for the child’s best interests.

GALs typically do not submit reports to the judge. Their advocacy must be that of any other attorneys on the case — they file and argue motions, briefs, and other legal pleadings and can cross-examine witnesses.

GALs can determine what they believe is in a child’s best interest by speaking with stakeholders, such as social workers, CASA volunteers, the child’s caregiver, service providers and teachers.

The GAL may be unable to meet with the child they represent outside of court given time constraints.

CASA volunteers are typically matched with the child or children on one case at a time. They invest all of their roughly 5-10 hours a month of volunteer time in that one case.

CASA volunteers provide a regular person’s perspective, rather than a legal or professional perspective. CASA volunteers are allowed to recommend whatever they believe would be best for the child. They operate independently, without the restrictions that are placed on social workers and attorneys.

You can call (859) 246-4313 or email info@casaoflexington.org with any questions you have about becoming a CASA volunteer.