Lexington Patient Care Advocate Moonlights as CASA Volunteer, Has Helped 18 Kids in Need
CASA volunteer Misty Green
At her day job, Misty Green is a patient care advocate. When she’s not at work, she becomes a different kind of advocate: a CASA volunteer.
Green has advocated for abused and neglected children as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer for four and a half years, helping an incredible 18 children during that time.
“Her background in the medical field, combined with her insight as a parent, have really helped her connect with her kids and caregivers,” said Dennis Stutsman, Green’s Volunteer Manager at CASA of Lexington. “She has special insight into strengthening educational progress and resolving medical issues which threaten safety and stability.”
Because of her hard work, CASA of Lexington named Green one of its Volunteers of the Month for June.
Green said she first heard about CASA on social media, and when she read more about what CASA volunteers do, “I knew I had to be a part of this!”
“I enjoy building relationships with my kiddos and being a consistent part of their life during the case,” she said, “My goal is to see the children in a safe, stable home.”
Green said it takes a lot of patience to be a CASA volunteer.
“You have to stick in there,” she said. “The kids depend on you.”
CASA of Lexington has volunteers with all kinds of different backgrounds, said Melynda Jamison, CASA of Lexington’s Executive Director. The nonprofit learns each volunteer’s unique background and skillset and works to match them with children in the family court system they can effectively advocate for, she said.
“We have teachers assigned to cases where education is a major concern and nurses assigned to cases where children have unique health needs,” Jamison said. “But we also have many more cases where the big need is simply for an outside perspective from a regular person whose goal is solely to help that child have a better future.”
CASA volunteers spend about 5-10 hours a month volunteering. They visit the child on their case monthly, talk to adults involved in the child’s life and provide reports to the judge. Those reports can catch things others have not had the time to see, and they help ensure children are getting services and can be returned to safe, permanent homes as quickly as possible.
Stutsman said Green has been excellent at working to reunify the children on her cases with their biological families whenever safely possible.
“She is a calm, objective and patient CASA who is able to work as well with parents and relatives as she does with children,” he said.