January 11, 2024 • 24 mins
Blair Ortmann, Vice President of Mission Advancement/Child Advocates San Antonio Child Advocates San Antonio (Court Appointed Special Advocate) The mission of Child Advocates San Antonio (CASA) is to recruit, develop and lead highly impactful court-appointed volunteer Advocates who provide constancy and support for children and youth who have experienced abuse and neglect. Go to their web site CASA-SATX.org and register for one of our Information Sessions.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This week on the Art of Improvement. I'll be talking with Blair Ortman.
She's the VP of Mission Advancement forKASAKASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate,
also known as child Advocate San Antonio. The mission is to recruit, develop,
and lead highly impactful court appointed volunteeradvocates who provide constancy and support for
(00:21):
the children and youth who have experiencedabuse and neglect. It is such an
important job. I can't wait formy conversation with Blair, and it's coming
up next on the Art of Improvement. Thank you so much for listening to
the Art of Improvement. I'm KarenKlaus and I am very very happy to
(00:42):
introduce you to Blair Ortman. She'sVP of Mission Advancement for CASA and CASA.
If you have not heard of it, where have you been? But
if you have not, it's somethingthat's called child Advocate San Antonio. Blair,
thanks so much for coming today.Thanks so much for having me,
Karen, I'm just delighted to behere. We are a Child's Advocates san
(01:03):
Antonio. KASA. Actually, justto confuse everyone also stands for Court Appointed
Special Advocates and that's pretty much whatKasa does. We recruit, develop,
and lead volunteers, just like allof you out in our community, to
become advocates for children who are inthe foster care system because they have suffered
(01:25):
abuse and neglect. Here I am, and I'm thinking, Okay, this
is a brand new year, andif you are looking for a cause,
if you're looking for something to giveyour time and your heart to this,
this is something that sounds personal,but it sounds and it sounds like it
takes a lot of time you're goingto have to help me, Blair,
(01:47):
but it also sounds like something thatyou probably get a lot from personally if
you become a volunteer. One hundredpercent, Karen. Our volunteers tell us
time after time after time. Youknow, they know that they do things
for our kids that they the childrencan't do for themselves. But they always
(02:09):
come back and say, I don'tknow what the child got out of it,
but I know what I got outof it, and it was so
such an amazing experience. And itdoesn't actually take as much time as I
don't as I think you might bethinking. So our advocates get to know
(02:29):
the child, they're required to meetwith them once a month, which once
you get to know these kids,you'll know that most of our advocates go
see them more than that, justbecause you want to. You get to
get to know and care for thesekids, and you want to make sure
that they know that you care forthem too. And there's you go to
(02:49):
court and report to the judge,and you get to know the education system
to make sure the kids have whatthey need in education, and you may
even talk to doctors, therapists,and just just making sure that you are
in touch with all of the peopleand the systems that this child is having
(03:13):
to deal with. I feel likeI know a KASA is and obviously you
do too, but I feel likefor someone that has never heard of it,
we need to start from the beginningto explain what it is. And
I know you said it's it's courtappointed you know, special advocates, but
would why would a child need acourt appointed special advocate? I mean,
(03:38):
the reality is this is a neededposition, But why so when a child
enters foster care, they are cominginto foster care because they have suffered some
abuse and neglect and the state andthe have determined that it was bad enough
(04:01):
that they are no longer safe intheir home. If you think about it
from the child's perspective. First ofall, a child who doesn't know any
different, that's normal whatever they're experiencing, no matter how bad they experience that
as this is the way life is. This is my mama, this is
(04:24):
how she is. This is mydaddy, this is how he is,
and this is how we live andwith me and my siblings. And maybe
that means we don't have very muchfood often. Maybe you know, yeah,
I sleep on that dirty mattress inthe floor. That's just where I
sleep. That's normal. It's normalfor this anger to be in the air,
(04:48):
to see domestic violence, to experiencesome honestly unspeakable abuse that happens in
some cases, and that child isthen removed from that environment. But all
they know is that they've just losteverything. They've lost their entire normal.
(05:10):
They've lost their mommy and daddy,who, no matter what happened, they
still love. They've lost their wherethey usually sleep, they've lost their favorite
teddy bear. In some cases,they're not eating the same foods. Perhaps
the bed smells funny, because youknow, everybody has uses their own unique
laundry detergent absolutely, and so nowthey're lost, they're lonely. They may
(05:34):
not really understand why this happened.They may feel guilty because they told somebody
what was going on, and sonow it's their fault in their own little
heads that this has that they thishas happened. And we know it's not
their fault. They these kids haven'tdone nothing to deserve what they've gone through,
(05:56):
but they don't know that. WhenI think of my own experience in
life, I think to myself,when I was in high school, our
neighbor got foster kids. When justrecently a friend of ours she lost her
son and she's like, I wantto help another child, and so she
(06:18):
got a foster kid that she's hadfor like six years already or five years,
And I thought to myself, Wow, that's the only experience I have
with kids that were in foster care. So when we talk about foster care,
there could be a million and onereasons why they're there. So as
(06:42):
a volunteer, well, no,no, I'm not going to ask that
yet. I'm going to ask howsince in my long, long life I've
only had these two experiences, Imean, how many kids are we talking
about? How many in San Antonio, in Far County, which is the
district that we talk about, thereare over four thousand children in foster care.
Man we served one fifty three ofthem last year by giving them a
(07:09):
COSSA advocate, and I didn't.I'm going to go back just quickly and
answer fully answer your question. Whenthat child enters into foster care, they've
lost everything, they don't know whoto trust, and they don't they may
have everybody in their life may bechanging, and so what they need is
(07:30):
consistency. They need a constant andthey need an adult who they know can
try, they can trust, andwho will show up for them all the
time. And that's what a costaadvocate is. They they come, they
show up. They show up forthe little things, which you know sometimes
we consider things little as adults thatkids don't see as little, but just
(07:53):
they show up for the little thingslike showing up on a Saturday to take
them to McDonald's, or they showup for the big things like in the
garden graduation when nobody else will bethere for that child. Then that's working
with the child directly. The advocatealso works with all those systems that are
surrounding the child to make sure thatthey have what they need, and in
(08:16):
total it averages about fifteen to eighteenhours in a month, So when you
think about it, that's really notthat much time. Many of those hours
can be done on a person's individualschedule in the evenings or in the early
mornings. There are a few times, like when court happens, that it
is during the day and set.So what is the difference then, between
(08:39):
a foster parent and a KASSA advocate. The biggest thing is that the children
do not live with us. Thechildren do not live with the KASSA advocates.
The children live with the foster familiesor in a group home or a
residential treatment center. And the advocateis that trusted adult who can come and
get them and take them out fora fun day and just keep an eye
(09:03):
on them and make sure that they'resafe in all circumstances. The reason that
KASSA was begun in nineteen seventy sevenout in Washington State was when Judge David
Sukop saw that he was having tomake decisions on the future of a child
in about ten minutes with whatever informationhas been presented to him, and he
(09:26):
said, you know, that's notgood enough. We're determining a child's entire
future. What I need is somebodywho is independent of all the systems and
who can go out talk to allthose people and tell me, unbiasedly what
is best for this child. Andso that's how CASA started. And now
(09:50):
it's nationwide. There's over nine hundredand thirty cassas throughout the country. There's
seventy three in Texas, and andit's just volunteery day, volunteers, every
day. People who are these peoplethough it seems like such a huge job.
And I want to ask you aboutthe volunteers, but before you've got
(10:11):
to tell everyone, how do youget in touch with CASA to say I
want to volunteer? Yes, pleasecall us. You can call us or
you can go onto our website.Our website is www dot cos us,
c A SA, dash SA tX dot org, or you can call
us at two one zero two twofive seventy seventy Okay, perfect, Okay?
(10:37):
Who are these people? Who arethese angels that are actually volunteering your
time? We have over five hundredvolunteers in Bear County and they come from
all walks of life. These arefolks who are still working. We have
people who are retired. We havepeople who are young moms, we have
(11:00):
dads, we have real liturs.They are everybody and all of us.
It's people who have the heart todo this. They are at least twenty
one, they can pass a backgroundcheck, and they care. That sounds
simple, but I know it's not. This is a huge commitment, not
(11:26):
only because you really have to giveyour heart to some to a child,
but is there a minimum amount oftime that you have to be present?
I mean, I know it's notsomething that's going to be like, oh,
two weeks later, you know you'redone. So most of our court
cases when a child's removed, thecourt cases last a minimum of twelve months,
(11:48):
and they may go to eighteen months. But that's the commitment we ask
of our volunteers, is that theywould stay on for the duration of the
case, which is normally somewhere betweentwelve to eighteen months. Do you ever
have people do it and then stayon with you and say I'm ready for
my next child all the time.And we are so blessed with those people
(12:09):
because, as you say, thisis both both the simplest job and concept,
and it is complex in some ways. And so when we have those
volunteers who are ready to take ontheir second case now they really know what
they're doing, we love that.And so we do have folks who take
(12:30):
on more than one case. Wehave folks who also often they stay in
touch with the children that they've helped. So after a case is closed,
it's up to the child and thefamily that they have permanency with to make
that determination if they want to stayin touch, because sometimes they just want
to close that chapter of their lives, but often they want to stay in
(12:54):
touch because this has been such ameaningful relationship. It would seem that a
voluntar tier would need more information thanjust saying, Okay, I'm here,
I'm here to volunteer. Where's mychild? Who am I going to help?
Is there any training? Do youhave to have a certain type of
background in order to be a greatkassa a volunteer. You do not have
(13:16):
to have any sort of particular background. We will teach you everything you need
to know when volunteers. When peoplejust raise their hand and say they want
to be a volunteer, we doask that you attend an information session,
and we have one coming up inJanuary. If you just check our website,
there's several opportunities to do that,and you attend the information session,
(13:39):
find out all the details of thecommitment, and then you go through an
interview process because we want to makesure that everything that you fully understand it
and that we understand you as wellas we go into this process. And
then we go through a training course. So there is thirty three hours of
training that covers aspects of how thecourt systems work, the education system,
(14:05):
the history of the child welfare systemin the United States. Did you know
that we had animal abuse laws beforewe had laws banning child I don't even
want to know. I don't evenwant to know. I mean, don't
get me wrong, I feel equallyemotional about both. But that's so sad,
(14:28):
it is it is. And sowe do we teach all the things
that a person would need to moveforward, and then at that point we
don't leave you alone at that pointeither. Our advocates are never should never
feel alone going through this process.We have staff members who walk side by
(14:50):
side with the advocates and are thereas that resource, as the fount of
knowledge and information and advice, andand you know, sometimes a shoulder to
lean on when necessary, and someoneto share the joys with as well.
Blair Ortman is VP of Mission Advancementfor cassa Court appointed Special Advocate or child
(15:13):
Advocate san Antonio. And I keepon in the back of my mind thinking
what kind of great person does this? But I keep on wondering, do
you have any maybe not exact storieswith names and everything, but do you
have any stories about how some ofthese volunteers feel after they've done it?
(15:35):
Do you get any feedback? Doyou get any feedback from the kids?
We do? You know? Wewere actually with one young lady this week
who aged out of the system.She's eighteen now, and first of all,
she's just a delight, but sheand her advocate were so excited that
(15:58):
she was able to to get intocollege. She's at A and M.
San Antonio now, and she reallytalks about how blessed she was by her
advocate and having that person there towalk her through the process and make sure
she kind of knew what she wasdoing and knew how to go grocery shopping.
(16:21):
And we were with her and shewas saying, Oh, I need
you to help me make good decisionstoday, and just the fact that she
had that language when maybe nobody elsein her life has said that, had
said that to her beforehand. Alot of these kids who are in the
(16:41):
system for a lot of years,they don't have good adult role models to
teach them some of the simple thingsthat that we may teach our kids and
grandchildren, you know, day afterday just in the matter of course of
life. You think it's just breathingbecause that's what you do, but it
doesn't. It doesn't always end upthat way for everybody. When you say
(17:07):
court appointed special advocate, I inmy mind, I was like, uh,
oh, I need to go standbefore a judge with you know my
child? Do I need to knowabout the law? Do I need to
know lingo that's going to say Ishould have watched more law in order?
I mean, how does that work? Do you have to know about the
law when you said you got tostudy how it all started? So we
(17:32):
do teach that information, and wealso teach how to write a court report.
What yes, so crazy. Ouradvocates are actually sworn in by the
judge when they when they become advocates. CASA is the only nonprofit organization that's
actually mentioned in this in the TexasLegal Code. We are part of of
(17:55):
of that law that says that thatwe can be sworn in by a judge
and therefore we can have access toall the case information that is confidential for
these children, as it should be. But that's what we need in order
to help them well. So yes, when our advocates are sworn they're sworn
(18:15):
in by a judge. They aretaught how to write a court report and
each time a court hearing comes upfor the child, which the children do
have a right to attend, butmost of the time they don't. Most
of the kids who want to attendare the older teens. But the KASA
writes a report turns it in aheadof time. Our judges in Bear County
(18:37):
are amazing. They are super caringabout every single child who comes through their
courtroom and the families, and theywant to help and they truly want what's
best for the children, and theyread every word of our cassa's court reports.
Those judges in family court, thething that I love about them is
(18:57):
it doesn't have anything to do withpolitics. It's about the kids. You
know, there's no R or Dthat anybody's looking at it's it's a big
heart that those judges have because you'reright, they're dealing with futures and to
be I guess an advocate with KASAand being able to stand alongside those kids
(19:22):
is like a huge, huge thing. And you must also hear from the
kids. Do I mean, canyou think of just one off the top
of your head. I don't wantto surprise you, but I mean,
besides the girl you talked about today, is there anything else that maybe you
could just add? As we wrapup here, we have one case that
(19:44):
finished last year with these two littleones who witnessed a lot of violence before
they came into the system, andthey throughout the process they got to be
very close with their advocate, theyall and they eventually got placed with their
grandmother who took them in and wantedto adopt them. And that's gold standard
(20:11):
is to be able to keep childrenwith their family in one way or another.
So that's what we always want todo if at all possible, if
it is safe, is to keepkids with family. But the cool thing
about this is that when they wereleaving, we were doing a photo shoot
because they after the adoption and thelittle girl reached up and she grabbed grandma's
(20:36):
hand, and she grabbed her advocate'shand, and she put them together in
her hands and she said, we'resuper glued together. I am speechless.
Those are They can't be written ina movie any better than that. And
it's real life and doing something thatcan help a child that is that young
(21:00):
to be able to come forward andsay something like that. I mean,
it's it's miraculous. Where can peoplecall to get information to become a volunteer
two one zero two two five seventyseventy and you'll reach us at CASA or
go to our website www dot cA s A DASH SA t X dot
(21:25):
org. I am going to askyou that one more time as we end,
but we have a couple of minutesand I just I want to ask
a few more questions because we quicklywent over you know, what is the
commitment at least twelve months? Uh? What is the age twenty one and
over? Is there anything else thatsomeone needs to say, Okay, I
(21:45):
don't have a driver's license or youknow, something like that. We do
ask for people to have a driver'slicense. Our advocates are allowed to transport
the kids and that's a that's awonderful thing. What about a criminal background
check? You said that, yes, we do ask that people must have
(22:10):
must be able to pass a criminalbackground check. And the safety of our
kids is paramount first and foremost,and so we have to be very careful
about as we start this new year. Would you say that this is a
time that you get a lot ofpeople interested. I mean, because I
really want to be able to putout this message more than just this time.
(22:33):
But is this a time when peopleare making decisions to volunteer? Do
you have classes year round? Howdoes that work? We do have classes
year round, but you know,it is the time for New Year's resolutions.
And if you have been thinking aboutbecoming an advocate, or you've been
thinking, you know, I reallywant to do more volunteer work this year.
(22:56):
I want to do something for someoneelse. This is your message to
say, please come call us volunteerwith us. Truly, this work changes
a child's life. You get towork directly with that child, and the
kids tell us they're asking for Kasa'skids who live in group homes and one
(23:21):
of them has a CAASA they allknow, and the ones who don't have
a CASA. Literally ask So there'sa child right now waiting for you to
step up and raise your hand andsay you know what, I can be
that person for that child. It'san amazing thing. I hope that you
get a phone call or two ortwenty from being here today, but I
(23:45):
want to invite you, Blair,to come back anytime. Blair Ortman is
the VP of Mission Advancement for KASACourt Appointed Special Advocate or Child Advocate,
San Antonio and great information, butyou got to come back and give us
more. Absolutely, anytime. I'dlove to come back again at www dot
c A, s A, DASH, s A t X, dot O
(24:08):
r G, or you can findus on all the social media's. We're
out there Child Advocates San Antonio andour phone number is two one zero two
two five seventy seventy
This week on the Art of Improvement. I'll be talking with Blair Ortman.
She's the VP of Mission Advancement forKASAKASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate,
also known as child Advocate San Antonio. The mission is to recruit, develop,
and lead highly impactful court appointed volunteeradvocates who provide constancy and support for
(00:21):
the children and youth who have experiencedabuse and neglect. It is such an
important job. I can't wait formy conversation with Blair, and it's coming
up next on the Art of Improvement. Thank you so much for listening to
the Art of Improvement. I'm KarenKlaus and I am very very happy to
(00:42):
introduce you to Blair Ortman. She'sVP of Mission Advancement for CASA and CASA.
If you have not heard of it, where have you been? But
if you have not, it's somethingthat's called child Advocate San Antonio. Blair,
thanks so much for coming today.Thanks so much for having me,
Karen, I'm just delighted to behere. We are a Child's Advocates san
(01:03):
Antonio. KASA. Actually, justto confuse everyone also stands for Court Appointed
Special Advocates and that's pretty much whatKasa does. We recruit, develop,
and lead volunteers, just like allof you out in our community, to
become advocates for children who are inthe foster care system because they have suffered
(01:25):
abuse and neglect. Here I am, and I'm thinking, Okay, this
is a brand new year, andif you are looking for a cause,
if you're looking for something to giveyour time and your heart to this,
this is something that sounds personal,but it sounds and it sounds like it
takes a lot of time you're goingto have to help me, Blair,
(01:47):
but it also sounds like something thatyou probably get a lot from personally if
you become a volunteer. One hundredpercent, Karen. Our volunteers tell us
time after time after time. Youknow, they know that they do things
for our kids that they the childrencan't do for themselves. But they always
(02:09):
come back and say, I don'tknow what the child got out of it,
but I know what I got outof it, and it was so
such an amazing experience. And itdoesn't actually take as much time as I
don't as I think you might bethinking. So our advocates get to know
(02:29):
the child, they're required to meetwith them once a month, which once
you get to know these kids,you'll know that most of our advocates go
see them more than that, justbecause you want to. You get to
get to know and care for thesekids, and you want to make sure
that they know that you care forthem too. And there's you go to
(02:49):
court and report to the judge,and you get to know the education system
to make sure the kids have whatthey need in education, and you may
even talk to doctors, therapists,and just just making sure that you are
in touch with all of the peopleand the systems that this child is having
(03:13):
to deal with. I feel likeI know a KASA is and obviously you
do too, but I feel likefor someone that has never heard of it,
we need to start from the beginningto explain what it is. And
I know you said it's it's courtappointed you know, special advocates, but
would why would a child need acourt appointed special advocate? I mean,
(03:38):
the reality is this is a neededposition, But why so when a child
enters foster care, they are cominginto foster care because they have suffered some
abuse and neglect and the state andthe have determined that it was bad enough
(04:01):
that they are no longer safe intheir home. If you think about it
from the child's perspective. First ofall, a child who doesn't know any
different, that's normal whatever they're experiencing, no matter how bad they experience that
as this is the way life is. This is my mama, this is
(04:24):
how she is. This is mydaddy, this is how he is,
and this is how we live andwith me and my siblings. And maybe
that means we don't have very muchfood often. Maybe you know, yeah,
I sleep on that dirty mattress inthe floor. That's just where I
sleep. That's normal. It's normalfor this anger to be in the air,
(04:48):
to see domestic violence, to experiencesome honestly unspeakable abuse that happens in
some cases, and that child isthen removed from that environment. But all
they know is that they've just losteverything. They've lost their entire normal.
(05:10):
They've lost their mommy and daddy,who, no matter what happened, they
still love. They've lost their wherethey usually sleep, they've lost their favorite
teddy bear. In some cases,they're not eating the same foods. Perhaps
the bed smells funny, because youknow, everybody has uses their own unique
laundry detergent absolutely, and so nowthey're lost, they're lonely. They may
(05:34):
not really understand why this happened.They may feel guilty because they told somebody
what was going on, and sonow it's their fault in their own little
heads that this has that they thishas happened. And we know it's not
their fault. They these kids haven'tdone nothing to deserve what they've gone through,
(05:56):
but they don't know that. WhenI think of my own experience in
life, I think to myself,when I was in high school, our
neighbor got foster kids. When justrecently a friend of ours she lost her
son and she's like, I wantto help another child, and so she
(06:18):
got a foster kid that she's hadfor like six years already or five years,
And I thought to myself, Wow, that's the only experience I have
with kids that were in foster care. So when we talk about foster care,
there could be a million and onereasons why they're there. So as
(06:42):
a volunteer, well, no,no, I'm not going to ask that
yet. I'm going to ask howsince in my long, long life I've
only had these two experiences, Imean, how many kids are we talking
about? How many in San Antonio, in Far County, which is the
district that we talk about, thereare over four thousand children in foster care.
Man we served one fifty three ofthem last year by giving them a
(07:09):
COSSA advocate, and I didn't.I'm going to go back just quickly and
answer fully answer your question. Whenthat child enters into foster care, they've
lost everything, they don't know whoto trust, and they don't they may
have everybody in their life may bechanging, and so what they need is
(07:30):
consistency. They need a constant andthey need an adult who they know can
try, they can trust, andwho will show up for them all the
time. And that's what a costaadvocate is. They they come, they
show up. They show up forthe little things, which you know sometimes
we consider things little as adults thatkids don't see as little, but just
(07:53):
they show up for the little thingslike showing up on a Saturday to take
them to McDonald's, or they showup for the big things like in the
garden graduation when nobody else will bethere for that child. Then that's working
with the child directly. The advocatealso works with all those systems that are
surrounding the child to make sure thatthey have what they need, and in
(08:16):
total it averages about fifteen to eighteenhours in a month, So when you
think about it, that's really notthat much time. Many of those hours
can be done on a person's individualschedule in the evenings or in the early
mornings. There are a few times, like when court happens, that it
is during the day and set.So what is the difference then, between
(08:39):
a foster parent and a KASSA advocate. The biggest thing is that the children
do not live with us. Thechildren do not live with the KASSA advocates.
The children live with the foster familiesor in a group home or a
residential treatment center. And the advocateis that trusted adult who can come and
get them and take them out fora fun day and just keep an eye
(09:03):
on them and make sure that they'resafe in all circumstances. The reason that
KASSA was begun in nineteen seventy sevenout in Washington State was when Judge David
Sukop saw that he was having tomake decisions on the future of a child
in about ten minutes with whatever informationhas been presented to him, and he
(09:26):
said, you know, that's notgood enough. We're determining a child's entire
future. What I need is somebodywho is independent of all the systems and
who can go out talk to allthose people and tell me, unbiasedly what
is best for this child. Andso that's how CASA started. And now
(09:50):
it's nationwide. There's over nine hundredand thirty cassas throughout the country. There's
seventy three in Texas, and andit's just volunteery day, volunteers, every
day. People who are these peoplethough it seems like such a huge job.
And I want to ask you aboutthe volunteers, but before you've got
(10:11):
to tell everyone, how do youget in touch with CASA to say I
want to volunteer? Yes, pleasecall us. You can call us or
you can go onto our website.Our website is www dot cos us,
c A SA, dash SA tX dot org, or you can call
us at two one zero two twofive seventy seventy Okay, perfect, Okay?
(10:37):
Who are these people? Who arethese angels that are actually volunteering your
time? We have over five hundredvolunteers in Bear County and they come from
all walks of life. These arefolks who are still working. We have
people who are retired. We havepeople who are young moms, we have
(11:00):
dads, we have real liturs.They are everybody and all of us.
It's people who have the heart todo this. They are at least twenty
one, they can pass a backgroundcheck, and they care. That sounds
simple, but I know it's not. This is a huge commitment, not
(11:26):
only because you really have to giveyour heart to some to a child,
but is there a minimum amount oftime that you have to be present?
I mean, I know it's notsomething that's going to be like, oh,
two weeks later, you know you'redone. So most of our court
cases when a child's removed, thecourt cases last a minimum of twelve months,
(11:48):
and they may go to eighteen months. But that's the commitment we ask
of our volunteers, is that theywould stay on for the duration of the
case, which is normally somewhere betweentwelve to eighteen months. Do you ever
have people do it and then stayon with you and say I'm ready for
my next child all the time.And we are so blessed with those people
(12:09):
because, as you say, thisis both both the simplest job and concept,
and it is complex in some ways. And so when we have those
volunteers who are ready to take ontheir second case now they really know what
they're doing, we love that.And so we do have folks who take
(12:30):
on more than one case. Wehave folks who also often they stay in
touch with the children that they've helped. So after a case is closed,
it's up to the child and thefamily that they have permanency with to make
that determination if they want to stayin touch, because sometimes they just want
to close that chapter of their lives, but often they want to stay in
(12:54):
touch because this has been such ameaningful relationship. It would seem that a
voluntar tier would need more information thanjust saying, Okay, I'm here,
I'm here to volunteer. Where's mychild? Who am I going to help?
Is there any training? Do youhave to have a certain type of
background in order to be a greatkassa a volunteer. You do not have
(13:16):
to have any sort of particular background. We will teach you everything you need
to know when volunteers. When peoplejust raise their hand and say they want
to be a volunteer, we doask that you attend an information session,
and we have one coming up inJanuary. If you just check our website,
there's several opportunities to do that,and you attend the information session,
(13:39):
find out all the details of thecommitment, and then you go through an
interview process because we want to makesure that everything that you fully understand it
and that we understand you as wellas we go into this process. And
then we go through a training course. So there is thirty three hours of
training that covers aspects of how thecourt systems work, the education system,
(14:05):
the history of the child welfare systemin the United States. Did you know
that we had animal abuse laws beforewe had laws banning child I don't even
want to know. I don't evenwant to know. I mean, don't
get me wrong, I feel equallyemotional about both. But that's so sad,
(14:28):
it is it is. And sowe do we teach all the things
that a person would need to moveforward, and then at that point we
don't leave you alone at that pointeither. Our advocates are never should never
feel alone going through this process.We have staff members who walk side by
(14:50):
side with the advocates and are thereas that resource, as the fount of
knowledge and information and advice, andand you know, sometimes a shoulder to
lean on when necessary, and someoneto share the joys with as well.
Blair Ortman is VP of Mission Advancementfor cassa Court appointed Special Advocate or child
(15:13):
Advocate san Antonio. And I keepon in the back of my mind thinking
what kind of great person does this? But I keep on wondering, do
you have any maybe not exact storieswith names and everything, but do you
have any stories about how some ofthese volunteers feel after they've done it?
(15:35):
Do you get any feedback? Doyou get any feedback from the kids?
We do? You know? Wewere actually with one young lady this week
who aged out of the system.She's eighteen now, and first of all,
she's just a delight, but sheand her advocate were so excited that
(15:58):
she was able to to get intocollege. She's at A and M.
San Antonio now, and she reallytalks about how blessed she was by her
advocate and having that person there towalk her through the process and make sure
she kind of knew what she wasdoing and knew how to go grocery shopping.
(16:21):
And we were with her and shewas saying, Oh, I need
you to help me make good decisionstoday, and just the fact that she
had that language when maybe nobody elsein her life has said that, had
said that to her beforehand. Alot of these kids who are in the
(16:41):
system for a lot of years,they don't have good adult role models to
teach them some of the simple thingsthat that we may teach our kids and
grandchildren, you know, day afterday just in the matter of course of
life. You think it's just breathingbecause that's what you do, but it
doesn't. It doesn't always end upthat way for everybody. When you say
(17:07):
court appointed special advocate, I inmy mind, I was like, uh,
oh, I need to go standbefore a judge with you know my
child? Do I need to knowabout the law? Do I need to
know lingo that's going to say Ishould have watched more law in order?
I mean, how does that work? Do you have to know about the
law when you said you got tostudy how it all started? So we
(17:32):
do teach that information, and wealso teach how to write a court report.
What yes, so crazy. Ouradvocates are actually sworn in by the
judge when they when they become advocates. CASA is the only nonprofit organization that's
actually mentioned in this in the TexasLegal Code. We are part of of
(17:55):
of that law that says that thatwe can be sworn in by a judge
and therefore we can have access toall the case information that is confidential for
these children, as it should be. But that's what we need in order
to help them well. So yes, when our advocates are sworn they're sworn
(18:15):
in by a judge. They aretaught how to write a court report and
each time a court hearing comes upfor the child, which the children do
have a right to attend, butmost of the time they don't. Most
of the kids who want to attendare the older teens. But the KASA
writes a report turns it in aheadof time. Our judges in Bear County
(18:37):
are amazing. They are super caringabout every single child who comes through their
courtroom and the families, and theywant to help and they truly want what's
best for the children, and theyread every word of our cassa's court reports.
Those judges in family court, thething that I love about them is
(18:57):
it doesn't have anything to do withpolitics. It's about the kids. You
know, there's no R or Dthat anybody's looking at it's it's a big
heart that those judges have because you'reright, they're dealing with futures and to
be I guess an advocate with KASAand being able to stand alongside those kids
(19:22):
is like a huge, huge thing. And you must also hear from the
kids. Do I mean, canyou think of just one off the top
of your head. I don't wantto surprise you, but I mean,
besides the girl you talked about today, is there anything else that maybe you
could just add? As we wrapup here, we have one case that
(19:44):
finished last year with these two littleones who witnessed a lot of violence before
they came into the system, andthey throughout the process they got to be
very close with their advocate, theyall and they eventually got placed with their
grandmother who took them in and wantedto adopt them. And that's gold standard
(20:11):
is to be able to keep childrenwith their family in one way or another.
So that's what we always want todo if at all possible, if
it is safe, is to keepkids with family. But the cool thing
about this is that when they wereleaving, we were doing a photo shoot
because they after the adoption and thelittle girl reached up and she grabbed grandma's
(20:36):
hand, and she grabbed her advocate'shand, and she put them together in
her hands and she said, we'resuper glued together. I am speechless.
Those are They can't be written ina movie any better than that. And
it's real life and doing something thatcan help a child that is that young
(21:00):
to be able to come forward andsay something like that. I mean,
it's it's miraculous. Where can peoplecall to get information to become a volunteer
two one zero two two five seventyseventy and you'll reach us at CASA or
go to our website www dot cA s A DASH SA t X dot
(21:25):
org. I am going to askyou that one more time as we end,
but we have a couple of minutesand I just I want to ask
a few more questions because we quicklywent over you know, what is the
commitment at least twelve months? Uh? What is the age twenty one and
over? Is there anything else thatsomeone needs to say, Okay, I
(21:45):
don't have a driver's license or youknow, something like that. We do
ask for people to have a driver'slicense. Our advocates are allowed to transport
the kids and that's a that's awonderful thing. What about a criminal background
check? You said that, yes, we do ask that people must have
(22:10):
must be able to pass a criminalbackground check. And the safety of our
kids is paramount first and foremost,and so we have to be very careful
about as we start this new year. Would you say that this is a
time that you get a lot ofpeople interested. I mean, because I
really want to be able to putout this message more than just this time.
(22:33):
But is this a time when peopleare making decisions to volunteer? Do
you have classes year round? Howdoes that work? We do have classes
year round, but you know,it is the time for New Year's resolutions.
And if you have been thinking aboutbecoming an advocate, or you've been
thinking, you know, I reallywant to do more volunteer work this year.
(22:56):
I want to do something for someoneelse. This is your message to
say, please come call us volunteerwith us. Truly, this work changes
a child's life. You get towork directly with that child, and the
kids tell us they're asking for Kasa'skids who live in group homes and one
(23:21):
of them has a CAASA they allknow, and the ones who don't have
a CASA. Literally ask So there'sa child right now waiting for you to
step up and raise your hand andsay you know what, I can be
that person for that child. It'san amazing thing. I hope that you
get a phone call or two ortwenty from being here today, but I
(23:45):
want to invite you, Blair,to come back anytime. Blair Ortman is
the VP of Mission Advancement for KASACourt Appointed Special Advocate or Child Advocate,
San Antonio and great information, butyou got to come back and give us
more. Absolutely, anytime. I'dlove to come back again at www dot
c A, s A, DASH, s A t X, dot O
(24:08):
r G, or you can findus on all the social media's. We're
out there Child Advocates San Antonio andour phone number is two one zero two
two five seventy seventy
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