INSIGHT WITH SYLVIA MAUS 9/10/23 DAUPHIN COUNTY CASA

“There are 300 abused and neglected kids in the Dauphin County Court System. Dauphin County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) desperately needs volunteer advocates for these children. Find out much more about this wonderful organization including their “Once Upon a Time” event that supports the volunteers who are changing the lives of kids facing major trauma.” https://dauphincountycasa.org/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, I'm Sylvia Moss, andthis is Insight, a presentation of iHeartMedia
where we really do care about ourlocal communities and all of our listeners who
live here. You know, residentsof Central Pennsylvania have always done the utmost
to demonstrate their concern and support forpeople in our local communities that need that
support, and now, more thanever, I asked you to please please

(00:21):
listen to this program and listen carefullyand closely. According to Pennsylvania Child Support
Network, last year alone, overthirty nine thousand suspected child abuse is reported
and from this number, sixty kidsdied as the result of the child abuse,
and most of them were Oh mygod, under the age of five.
It's horrible if you think this doesn'thappen, as I've sent many times

(00:43):
here in Central Pennsylvania. How letme tell you about something not too long
ago. I talked to Dauphin CountyDistrict Attorney Friend Chartero, and he told
me that at that time his teamwas working over forty cases of suspected child
abuse cases where parents and caregivers,parents and caregivers of kids, we're selling
them on the internet for sex.That is so bad. If this doesn't

(01:07):
grab your serious attention. I don'tknow what will. There's several types of
child abuse. Some cases are neverreported and for those that are not,
often enough, these kids becomes wardsof the state. A lot of these
kids the court takes them over.This means that somebody has to take charge
of their lives and enough to ensurethat they end up and safe in supportive
homes and leading the way. Righthere in Dauphin County is our area,

(01:30):
well, it covers Jaffhin County.But we've got two wonderful guests representing COSSA.
Is that organization known as COSSA CostaStance or Court Appointed Special Advocates with
us today from this remarkable organization orExecutive Director of Dauphin County COSSA, Will
Foster, and the President and CEOof COSSA Pennsylvania, Jennifer debacol Am.
I saying your name right, Jenny, all right, jen oversees all the

(01:53):
costs of programs in the state ofPennsylvania. I want to thank you guys
for coming in and ask you youknow what. I know that they're currently
what twenty one COSTA programs in thestate and some of them are being shared
in different counties, but I thinkas far as Jaffan County cost so it
would be well, I would beremiss if I didn't bring up Lorie sarah

(02:14):
Lli and what she has done forcosting this county. Can you talk about
that? She's remarkable. Absolutely.When I started in this role in twenty
seventeen, Lorie was on the boardof Pennsylvania Costa in an effort to get
COSTA started here in Dauphin County.She had been working at that time almost
ten years on bringing the program hereten years. She had a steering committee

(02:36):
together, she gained the support ofthe judge, and she kept that moving.
Despite some bumps in the road,she continued to push forward. There
was varying support at different times.She continued to move forward, build support,
build trust in the program. Itcan be really hard to allow community
volunteers into a courtroom with such sensitiveinformation, information shared as confidential, and

(03:00):
so to open that up to communitymembers requires a lot of trust between the
courts and the costs of program andalso the Children in Youth employees who are
working very hard on behalf of thesefamilies. Where do the kids come from,
how do they come to the courts. So the children are brought into
the courts through a petition for dependency, meaning that there is an issue in

(03:22):
their home that they are not safeand that they would possibly need remove they
would need to be a dependent ofthe court. This is as a result
of the children experiencing either abuse orneglect in their home and so once that
petition comes before the court, costsof volunteers can be appointed by the court
to be the eyes and years ofthe court to speak for the child,

(03:42):
to work with all of the playersinvolved, So the costas are there to
work with the guardian zed LTAM,who are representing the best interests of the
children, with the attorneys and allof the social workers who are involved to
help make sure that the family canget the best outcome. In an effort
to make this hit home with ourlisteners, talk to us about some of
them, and you too, bothof you folks. Talk to me about

(04:03):
kind of abuse we're talking about oneof these kids. I know recently,
well within the last year or two, we've had children who have died.
What happens talk about situations without identifyingpeople. Sure, absolutely, I'll just
give a general overview. Obviously,within the last several years, we've gone
through a global pandemic. It haskept children with families and taken eyes off

(04:27):
of children, and so we areseeing some very complex situations coming into the
courtroom. That being said, Ihave the benefit of working with the programs
who work with the children and beingone step removed from the children that they
work with. So I'll lob itover to well to talk about what your
experiences. Man, Well, youname it, We've probably seen it.

(04:48):
At Dauphin County. I'd like tosay is unique in the cases that we
see, but talking with some ofthe other cost of directors, they are
experiencing a lot of the same,several more things. I mean, opioid
substance use abuse is a big factorfor a lot of our parents that are
coming and getting their children removed,trafficking allegations, just general neglect, not

(05:14):
being able to support their family.Mental health issues tend to be a really
big issue for parents that just don'thave the right supports in place in order
to be successful as parents. Sothat's where a lot of our volunteers can
come in and be like, Okay, well it's not a parenting issue,
it's a parent that needs extra helpissue exactly. And I can talk from

(05:39):
Dauphin County perspective. Our county childrenand youth do a phenomenal job of trying
to provide resources before taking kids away. And I mean we work hand in
hand on trying to help remove thosebarriers with them. And they're not all
poor people. Are they inter abusingtheir children? You're taking from everybody thinks
each poor kid, people people whoare addicted, and if they are,

(06:01):
it seems to me this is agenerational thing. Addiction abuse is it's a
lot of times it's a general apassive from one generation to the other.
So if you're exposed to that,you're going to do it to your child,
right, not necessarily, And Ithink a lot of the youth we
work with would really fight against thatstereotype. There are certainly intergenerational cycles of

(06:24):
abuse. But what we know isthat when strong communities come together around these
cases and come together to help,that there can be a difference made.
It's not only it's not only poorpeople, it's not only urban areas.
It's happening all across Pennsylvania. Andwhat we know is that people who are
experiencing poverty and have limited resources,have to turn towards the system for help,

(06:46):
and so that's how they come intothe system, and so there is
an overrepresentation of people who are experiencingpoverty or low socioeconomic status. However,
we also know that people who comeinto the system oftentimes don't have communities around
them, don't have maybe grandparents whocan help, or other resources outside of
their nuclear family, and so notonly are they limited on financial resources,

(07:09):
but sometimes just that support that theyneed to encourage. We all know being
a parent is hard if you've experiencedit, having young kids and having those
children under five that you talked aboutearlier is a huge challenge and everybody needs
a break, everybody needs help,and so when it's exacerbated by multiple complex
issues and there's nowhere to turn,that is oftentimes how families end up in

(07:32):
the system that we're in. Andso that's why what WILL is talking about,
as far as you know, teamingtogether, working with all the resources
that we have to strengthen the familyand to speak for the child and make
sure the child is safe can bereally effective from the beginning, before they
might come into care, after they'reremoved, just making sure that all barriers

(07:53):
are removed to reunited family, ifat all it's safely possible. Well,
one of the major tools that youhave are, of course, people that
are advocating for the children. Andwell, how many kids are waiting for
an advocate in Dauphin County. SoI just found out last night we are
back to three hundred and thirty sixcases ready for a cost of volunteer.

(08:16):
And how is the cost of volunteerdifferent? Like you said, a caseworker,
it would seem to me, I'ma volunteer. I'm there because I
want to be we are. Well, yeah, so there's a couple of
big differences. We do a lotof similar work. We do overlap a
little bit, but that's not whereour volunteers aren't here to do the casework
itself, but help support the caseworkers and the other professionals around the table.

(08:39):
So volunteers they only carry one caseload or one case not load,
because otherwise you'd be a caseworker atthat point. Our case workers are I
think their numbers are coming down andhow many they have they have to carry.
But I think one of our oneof my favorite workers, has got

(09:00):
like twenty eight cases right now,oh my goodness, and that's not abnormal.
And that number has been higher,this number has been lower. And
there are so many even supervisors andmanagers that are carrying cases as well.
So like everyone at CYS has stretchedto the limit. So and our volunteers
are able to get information that they'renot going to be able to get,

(09:22):
whether it's because they don't have thetrust or the time to build that trust
with the family or whoever they needto talk to. But we are also
focus on that one child. Iwould imagine these people that advocate the volunteers,
they're probably older people who've seen alot of life, right, is
that true? Not necessarily, Sowe really try and recruit from all walks

(09:46):
of life because I think, toadd to what Will said, one of
the differences for our costs of volunteersis many of them don't come from a
child welfare background, and so theycan look at a case and say,
wait, this doesn't make any sense. So things that maybe are just typical
the way you do things when youhave twenty eight cases on your caseload,
the cost of volunteer can say,hold on a second, we need to

(10:07):
get this parent transportation, or weneed to get this child to see their
sibling, or this child needs eyeglasses, and no one noticed. They didn't
come from the last placement to thisplacement with them, and so our costs
really dig in. They have thatone case, they have that time,
but they just have a totally differentperspective too. Well, go ahead,
I'm sorry, No, that's okay. I'm listening to this program. I'm
hearing all this stuff about what's goingon, and I think maybe I should

(10:31):
check into this. What would myresponsibilities be to the child? What type
of commitment do I have? Whattime? How much time is involved?
Well, I think this is apretty standard. The requirements are pretty standard.
But for Dauphin County, we expectten to fifteen hours a month working
on your case. We are askingfor a commitment of two to three years,

(10:52):
but some cases will last longer,some maybe a little less. But
Dauphin County is seeing an average oftwo and a half years on a case
and you're required to see them oncea month, required to see us once
a month. So what do theywhat do they do? I mean,
do they go to the schools?Do they go they represent the child in
court as an independent you know,exactly what else do they do? Well,

(11:15):
they get eyes on the child atleast once a month to make sure
everything's good. They're developing that relationship, because relationship building is a big key
part of this. We take thetime to get to know this child inside
and out, and then that givesus an even better perspective to relate to
the court, like, hey,this child really needs a little bit of
extra help, and they're just afraidto say it somewhere else. So our

(11:37):
volunteers are really getting to know thischild. Everyone in this child's life,
the foster parents, maybe the placement, maybe it's a potential family that can
take them in it, teachers,coaches, whoever. They're just getting to
know all of these people so thatthey can be like, all right,
they do really well in acts,but they are struggling in school, Well,

(12:03):
what's the difference? So then weare able to help identify what the
problems are so that we can thenhelp remove those barriers. There's trained though,
for the cost of volunteer, Thankgoodness, where are they going to
learn in their training? A littlebit of everything. I actually just started
a training last night. We haveeight incoming volunteers, very excited to have

(12:24):
that many people coming with us,but they'll learn all the major players in
the game. They'll get to understandwhat their role is as a cost of
volunteer. They'll learn how to writea court report, which is nobody's favorite
thing to do. And then wego into all the big hard topics.
It's substance abuse, what does thatlook like, trauma, degenerational trauma that

(12:46):
we talk about. They'll be mentalhealth, poverty, LGBTQI A plus all
of the hard topics and how theyaffect the child. And then how can
we affect change with that. Anotherbig thing that I always like to focus
on because a lot of people missthis, is the fact that we focus
on strength and instead of focusing onthe deficits that a family might have,

(13:09):
we focus on the strengths that afamily has. What's going on with the
parents while the child is taken away? Do they get support? Yes,
well, it depends on the case. But the primary hope is that the
parents are involved and they're getting thesupport that they need that and they're making
the efforts that they need to makein order to be reunified with their child.

(13:31):
You've had a lot of success.Tell us about some of the success
you've had with the volunteering, YourCorner and Child's Corner. Yeah. I
actually we have an event coming up, and I was just coming to that,
but I was just coming through alot of our success stories so that
we can highlight some of them.So one case that I actually work with
personally older youth. When I methim, all he was happy to do

(13:54):
was play video games all day.He had a job sort of, but
he didn't really have any ambition.After I put the ball in his court,
I'm like, here, I'm hereto help you, and if you're
not willing to put the work in, there's only so much I'm gonna be
able to do to help you.He took that and he's like, wow,
all right, well I want todo this. All right, let's
do this. I literally spent anentire day riding Harrisburg buses with him so

(14:18):
that he could get used to gettingaround because he doesn't have his driver's license
and he wanted to be able toget a job, a real job,
so he's not working full time andmaking good money at it. I'm like,
man, if I was your agemaking that kind of money, I'd
be banking every last bit of it. But anyway, so like I help,
Yeah, but you're an old guy. I'm an old guys. I
was just the lessons that he's learningnow that I mean, I wish I'd

(14:39):
had someone, yes, yes,and just it's just like he's he wants
to go to college. Now,he's holding on his job and doing well
with it. He's like really takingon a real adult feel. And I'm
just like so pumped to see hisgrowth in that short amount of time.
There are a lot of kids thatdon't we turn home and go into the
foster press him. There are ahandful of them that will get adopted or

(15:07):
another form of permanency and not endup back home. And those are unfortunate
cases. But if they don't endup back home, there's a good reason
for it, you know, talkingabout foster care. You and I were
talking about this before we started theprogram. Somebody else. We need to
talk about his Bill Horning love thatangel that he is an angel on Earth.
Bill and his wife have had twentyfive foster care children over there,

(15:31):
twenty five and some of them hadphysical disciplines. He ended up adopting one,
and then he has his own childrenthat he raised. That man and
every time you have a fundraiser,you have it at Horning's Hardware on Mountain
Road. He is amazing. Yousaid, yeah, breakfast with him this
morning? Yeah, I had breakfastwith Bill this morning. He is actually
one of our board members. He, if I'm not mistaken, was our

(15:54):
first president of the board. Andhe's just such a light. My things
are crazy right now, and beingable to take time to spend time with
Bill this morning, it was justlike so refreshing and a recharge for me.
And he always tells me, you'realways so positive. I really can
we have breakfast? I'm like,Bill, you can tell me you want

(16:15):
me to follow you a random pointof the day and I'll be like,
just tell me how to get theexactly. He's just imagine that raising your
own children and then twenty five Godbless that wonderful man. I want to
talk about somebody or something. Ifwe think, if we suspect child abuse,
what would it look like, whatshould we be looking for? So

(16:40):
that is I would encourage anybody who'sinterested in really getting involved in their community
to start going through the training.There is a mandated reporter section of the
cost of training that teaches you whatto look for and when to report.
If you suspect child abuse, youshould always report it. The professionals will
do the investigation. So there isa number to call that is of course
escaping me right now for suspected achild abuse and that turns the report over

(17:03):
to the Children and Youth agency withinthe county where you've received dead and it
allows them to do their jobs.But what are you looking for if I'm
a next door neighbor? I meanwith the child, what's the child going
to be doing? What type ofbehavior will they exhibit for me to suspect
that something's going on. That's areally big question because there's a lot of
things. There's so many different redflags that you could come up with.

(17:29):
It's really as a child looking abnormal, if like, if you're looking if
you're a neighbor, I mean it'stough when you're neighbors. But you know
how like are you seeing bruises,like physical bruises? What maybe you're looking
at sort of that sort of thing? Or do they always look hungry?
Are they always coming to your housegoing, hey, what's for dinner tonight?
Yeah? And even in school,I would think that teachers would notice

(17:51):
a lot of that stuff too.Changes in behavior, especially if you're you
know, it's someone you're it's achild you're close to, and you see
a significant change in behavior, thatcan be Well, I know, in
the recent budget, you guys weresupposed to get what little over a little
less than two million bucks, wasn'tit? Does that filter down to you
the money that was I mean,how does that work? Yes, that's
a great question. So for thefirst time last fiscal year, Pennsylvania COSTA

(18:15):
was funded. Prior to that,we were one of three states that didn't
receive state funding for our costs ofprograms. So we received one point eight
million dollars, which some stays withpay COSTA and the rest has passed through
to local programs, both the existinglocal programs and any new program development.
We are only in, as yousaid, twenty eight of the existing sixty
seven counties, and so there's somework to do there as well, and

(18:37):
we have a request in this yearfor three point six We believe that we
can do better reach more children withoutadditional funding. We also received a cut
in the Victims of Crime Act orFOCA funding across the state, and so
it's really important for the cost ofprograms to be well funded and have that
consistent funding year over years, sothat they know it can hire a new

(19:00):
position, to supervise more volunteers,to serve more children, not just piece
meal together, and wonder where thatfunding is going to come from. And
you know, in the past,I know any nonprofit, anybody it's involved
in nonprofit world knows that if youneed money for staff or office supplies or
anything like that, you've got toraise that money on your own. Because
when you apply for a grant,it's for programming, and there's so many

(19:21):
people out there with similar causes.It's like every time you write at grant,
it takes a lot of time andyou don't know if you're going to
get it or not. So ifyou don't get it, you're gonna have
to figure out where to get moneyfor programs. Thank god, you're getting
that from the state now. Butyou have had to have a lot of
wonderful fundraises and you got one.And I know right now that Will's biting
at the bit to talk about onceupon a time telling you that biting at

(19:45):
the bit is an understatement. Thisevent is going to be so great,
it's going to be very unique.We're hosting it at the Hershey Country Club
on September twenty first, and basicallyit's going to be an evening of celebrating
stories and getting people to understand whata child goes through in the child welfare

(20:06):
system. And that's just a smallpiece of that. So that evening will
be joined by a musical artist,Karina Joy. She's apparently locally big and
I've checked out our website. Hervoice is amazing, so we'll be joined
by her. We also have alocal artist named Paul Murray. He has

(20:27):
a studio at the Millworks and heis going to be doing a live painting.
He's providing other paintings as well foran auction that we're hosting that night.
And then in addition to that,we have a good friend of mine,
David zay As. He is awonderful individual who works for vict and
Witness Assistance Program and he also isa playwright, actor director, and he's

(20:52):
orchestrating for us child actors that willactually exhibit each stage of the child welfare
system for a child. Oh isn'tthat wonderful? So I'll give you you
have a chance to be moved emotionallyby this. This is wonderful. Yeah.
And so in addition to all ofthat, we'll have table cards with
our success stories, will have asignature cocktail mocktail that night called Once upon

(21:18):
a Time. Go figure one ofyour board members doing something that night too.
Yes, one of our board members, Kendra McDowell. She's going to
be doing a spoken word piece thatis going to show the impact that a
cost of volunteer can have. Sowe have the child actors who are going
through that storyline without having a costain their life. This is what happens

(21:40):
for them without costa. And thenKendra is going to tie it all together
with how a costa has impacted thatfor this fictitious child. And tell me,
I know you're dying to talk aboutthe cocktail. Oh my gosh,
the cost I'm not dying to talkabout that because I didn't come. I
don't know exactly what's in it.I know it's some sort of apricot like

(22:03):
it's a it's like a fruity flavoredI'm sorry, Sylvia, I am not
prepared. Well, you won't beforgetting it that evening. Probably I probably
won't be. It's open to thepublic right. It is open to the
publics. They are one hundred dollarsa ticket, but they you can get
them going onto our website www dotDuphin County, Costa dot org and right

(22:26):
on the front page you can saybuy tickets here and then sign up for
as many tickets as you can possiblybuy. Here's a chance for you guys
to say thank you. Who areyour sponsors? So we have a couple
of really big sponsors right now.Capital Blue is coming in with a pretty
sizable sponsorship. Up MC another greatsupport for us locally, I mean Nell

(22:49):
McCormick a bomb is helping us outquite a bit in all aspects of this
event, but also as a sponsor. And Laurie Certelli with both of her
law firm practices Certeli Disputes and thenShiftman, Sheridan and Brown will be sponsors
as well. Fresh Market at Hershey. Fresh Market at at Hershey. Yep,

(23:11):
they are a big sponsor for us. We just got stone Bridge Financial
as great as a as another sponsor, My goodness, Tucker Hall. Yeah,
they were one of our first sponsors. I can't believe I almost forgot
them. Tucker Hall Law firm attheir local they're great. And then we
also have Sunstone Consulting that they'll becoming in as a sponsorship as well.

(23:33):
So I mean, we have alot of really great sponsors coming through the
door for us. Is it toolate for a sponsor? Never too late.
The nice thing is our sponsorship stuffwill you get in now? And
your sponsorship covers you for the wholeyear. So if oh wow, yeah,
I'm I've I've changed up how wedo sponsorship so that maybe people will

(23:55):
be more enticed to join us.Now you can sponsor just one individual event
for five hundred dollars or for athousand, getting some sort of minimal coverage
for all of our events. That'sa good deal. When you find out
how expensive things aren't there, that'sa real good deal. I gotta ask
you something before we close. Thework you do has to be heartbreaking.

(24:17):
You're both young people with small children. Why did you choose this profession?
When I was in college, Iwas I went to college at actually Dickinson
College out here in central Pennsylvania.I joined a sorority and it was Kappa
Alpha Theta. Their national philanthropy isCASSA, And for some reason it touched

(24:38):
my heart I started to volunteer withthe Cumberland County COSSA organization at that time,
and when I was ready to graduate, I didn't quite know what I
wanted to do, and the womenat Cumberland County CASSA told me that I
should probably look into COSTA since Ispent all my free time there anyway.
So I have made a career outof this. This is the only thing

(24:59):
I've ever done. I've worked multiplecost of programs and I continue to do
it because I believe in the mission. I've seen the power and the difference
volunteers can make when they're dedicated tofight, and I continue to be surprised
at all of those swearing ins acrossthe state that I'm invited to that community
volunteers continue to step up to changethe lives of children, to make a
powerful impact on their lives, toelevate and amplify their voices. How about

(25:22):
you will need that three little lines. I do have three little ones,
and there are days where I justgo home and hug them for as long
as they'll let me. But Ididn't choose the cost of life. The
cost of life chose me. Ihonestly fell backwards into the into the cost
of program and I fell in lovewith it. So it's it's now been.

(25:47):
It's now a huge passion of mineand what keeps me going the success
stories and the amazing volunteers that comethrough the door that are giving so much
of their themselves to be a partof the program. One more time,
I genuine are your website if peoplewant to check out what you're doing Pakasa
dot org. How about you WillDouphin County dot org. You know,
I don't know how you two dowhat you do everyway, every day.

(26:10):
It's it's amazing. It just movesme so much because anybody listens to this
program knows I'm interested in a lotof the issues, all the issues.
But when somebody I don't want tosay when somebody does something to a child,
but when a child is peril,I just it tears me apart.
Thank you from the bottom of myheart for continuing to do the work that

(26:30):
you do every day. One moretime. It's called Once upon a Time,
an evening of storytelling and cocktails.It's your chance to support Dolphin County
COSSA and learn about how you canact as an advocate to change the life
of one of the children and theDolphin County Foster Care System. It's Thursday,
September twenty feet to six pm.Guys, thank you again. It's

(26:51):
at the Hershey Country Club. Andremember that if you can't catch Insight when
it airs on many of our iHeartstations or anytime on your favorite podcast app.
I'm Sylvia Moss. This has beenInsight. Thank you so much for
listening. See you next week.