CASA volunteers team up to create ‘miraculous’ outcome for teen mom and her child
The CASA of Lexington Volunteers of the Month for August are working on related cases together, helping a teen mom and her child find a brighter future.
Jennifer Cathey and Jane Crickard are working as a team, one advocating for the needs of the teen mom and one advocating for the needs of the mom’s child, explained Volunteer Manager Liz Noffsinger.
“They have worked tireless advocating for reunification of the mom and her child,” said Noffsinger, who nominated Cathey and Crickard to be Volunteers of the Month. “Jane and Jenn have been tenacious in gathering therapy records, medical records and have built a strong trust with the teen mom.”
Cathey and Crickard are an example of a CASA team – a pairing of multiple CASA volunteers who work on a case or related cases together. Often CASA teams are spouses or parent/child pairings, but they can also be any CASA volunteers who work well together.
CASA Volunteer Jenn Cathey
Cathey, who has been a CASA volunteer for seven and a half years and advocated for 13 children, said the children and families she has served have been “an absolute joy in my life.”
“They have taught me what hard work, sacrifice, love and tenacity can accomplish,” she said. “Helping children reach a point of permanence is honestly one of the most amazing things I’ve been involved with.”
Crickard has been a volunteer for close to a year and a half.
“I knew working with children in the Foster Care system would be rewarding, but I had no idea how rewarding,” she said. “Experiencing firsthand how difficult, frustrating and scary this process can be for the children involved, I really see how critical it is for that child to have that one person who is there for them through all of it, no matter how long it takes.”
Noffsinger said Cathey and Crickard’s work has helped create a stable living situation for the mom and her child — in a place where they can be together. The CASA volunteers have also helped get the mom’s education on-track. Given where the case was when the CASA volunteers were appointed, Noffsinger said the outcome is “nothing short of miraculous.”
CASA Volunteer Jane Crickard
Both Cathey and Crickard said they have tackled truly difficult things in their lives — Crickard left the corporate world and started her own business five years ago, and Cathey has cared for her husband as he battled cancer and is a breast cancer survivor herself.
“If you think you don’t have time to serve as a CASA volunteer, please reconsider,” Cathey said. “ I’ve served with CASA through parenthood, full-time employment, while obtaining my master’s degree, as I volunteered in other capacities, while caring for my husband in his battle with pancreatic cancer, and throughout my own cancer journey. Making time to serve a child in need is the best way I know to improve our community and make a true difference.”
CASA volunteers complete a 30-hour training class before they are matched with a neglected child. They visit the child each month, talk to adults in the child’s life, review records and provide reports to the judge on the child’s case. It takes about 5-10 hours a month to be a CASA volunteer. CASA of Lexington volunteers can serve in seven central Kentucky counties: Bourbon, Fayette, Garrard, Jessamine, Lincoln, Scott and Woodford.
“If you are thinking of becoming a CASA, I would say talk to current volunteers, read about it, take the training and if you still feel like you want to move forward, you will absolutely find it to be one of the most rewarding things you will ever do,” Crickard said. “I plan to be a CASA as long as I have breath in me!”
CASA of Lexington’s next training class for new volunteers begins Sept. 7, with classes in Lexington on evenings and weekends. Additional trainings for those wishing to serve in Jessamine, Garrard and Lincoln counties are also being scheduled this fall. You can see all training class schedules at www.casaoflexington.org/training and you can apply to be a CASA volunteer at www.casaoflexington.org/apply.