Bourbon County woman fulfills her civic duty as volunteer advocate for kids

CASA Volunteer Rachel Davidson-Stebbins

Paris, Ky. – After she moved to Paris from Texas in the midst of the pandemic, Rachel Davidson-Stebbins was looking for a way to do her part for her community.

“My husband and I had been talking about feeling like we were not meeting our civic duties as responsible citizens and how we could change that,” she said. “And I have this rule that I should not try to save world, but rather I should focus on helping those right in front of me.”

Davidson-Stebbins found the perfect way to fulfill her desire to give back: by serving as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer.

“CASA was the perfect solution to meeting those two metrics – civic duty  and local impact,” she said. “In that spirit, it has absolutely been worth my time.”

As a CASA volunteer, Davidson-Stebbins is matched with an abused or neglected child in the family court system. She visits with the child regularly and collects information about what’s going on in their life. Then, she provides that information in reports to the judge on the child’s case.

CASA reports help judges order the services that children need and keep the focus on getting children back into safe, permanent homes as quickly as possible.

Davidson-Stebbins has advocated for two children since she started volunteering about a year and a half ago. This month, her Volunteer Manager Weida Allen nominated her to receive a Volunteer of the Month award.

“Rachel is an excellent volunteer. Her court reports are written with great care and completeness,” Allen said. “Rachel understands what her goals are as a CASA volunteer.”

CASA volunteers often build relationships with children who have lived through multiple traumatic experiences — and they may encounter more trauma before their cases close. Davidson-Stebbins said she initially worried about how she would handle the rough situations that CASA kids are sometimes in.

“One of my weaknesses is that I fall in love easily, so I was worried about the emotional labor of doing this work,” she said. “But our job is pretty narrow and that helps maintain objectivity. Your only client is the child and advocating to the judge what is in their best interests. If you can do the advocacy work well, then you have successfully played your part in improving a situation not of your own making.”

Last year in Bourbon County, there were 76 children who were abused or neglected, and likely around 150 children with open family court cases. CASA volunteers were available to serve 46 of those children.

Davidson-Stebbins said she would encourage anyone looking for a way to improve their community to become a CASA volunteer and help Bourbon County kids.

“Just do it. Take the plunge,” she said. “There is a lot of breadth in the types of cases and you will be the perfect fit for enough of those that you can make an impact.”