Welcome New CASA Advocates!
By Sharie Dodge, Advocate Engagement Manager
CASA’s most recent training class was a small group but packed with power! On 3/6/26, we swore in five new Advocates. They completed the 40 hours of training alongside four new Board Members. This dynamic mix of people brought a lot of different angles to the classroom conversations.
During swear-in, Judge Metz talked with the new Advocates about the importance of CASA providing a detailed perspective on each child. He also discussed exploring and working above our individual biases that might arise in the cases. He gave great examples from his own learning and the Advocates really connected with him. (And Sharie, CASA’s trainer, was just thrilled to hear the same implicit bias messages from the last seven weeks of training!)
Staff is very excited to start working with these five new Advocates. This group has some truly rock-solid assets to contribute. We are already looking to fill the next class, too! Since this was a small group, we know we really need to increase our Advocate pool to get us through the summer months. Between now and the fall session, we average about 40 new cases, and every single one of them will need an Advocate.
Just maybe, you’ll become the next Advocate in training?