Bourbon County CASA earns Volunteer of the Month award for helping abused and neglected children

CASA Volunteer Beth Monarch

Beth Monarch makes time for crafting, gardening and traveling in retirement. She also makes time for abused and neglected children.

Monarch serves as a CASA volunteer in Bourbon County, advocating for children from the community who have been abused or neglected. She has served as a CASA volunteer for five years and advocated for five children over that time.

This April, she is a CASA Volunteer of the Month because of her dedication to helping her CASA children.

“Beth has been the most consistent person besides the foster parent in her CASA kids’ lives,” said Weida Allen, Monarch’s Volunteer Manager.

Monarch said she first learned about Bourbon County’s CASA program in the Bourbon County Citizen, which had several articles about the program that launched in 2017.

Since it started, the Bourbon County CASA program has grown to serve around 60 children a year. Last year, there were 29 CASA volunteers in Bourbon County.

CASA volunteers give 5-10 hours a month on average. They visit the child or sibling set on their case every month, talk to adults in the child’s life and write reports for Family Court Judges Lisa Hart Morgan and Joseph Fooks. Those reports give Fooks and Morgan a lot of detail and background about what’s going on in the children’s lives, helping them make more informed decisions and provide more services to the children and their families.

“In every case where we have our CASA volunteers, I know we’re getting better information about our children, I know fewer things are falling through the cracks, I know these kids are getting tremendous resources in terms of care,” Judge Morgan has said previously. “It’s making a huge difference in these kids’ lives.”

“What I enjoy about being a CASA volunteer is knowing that I truly made a difference in the lives of kids,” Monarch said. “The biggest thing is you really can make a difference in the life of a child by being their advocate in court. There’s no question about that.”