Volunteer Voice
I am a CASA for a witty, insightful, and creative teenage girl. During our time together, we have bonded over fashion at the mall, had new food adventures, and gone roller skating in the suburbs. We love driving around singing and dancing to hip-hop and pop music, and can talk forever about anything and everything. We’ve been together for close to a year, and during that time, have together been working with the rest of her team to find her a stable placement. Over the summer, she made the decision that she needed to get out of the city to
Read MoreI applied to become a CASA Volunteer, because I wanted to make a more direct impact in a child’s life. My current job involves helping foundations and philanthropists improve their grant making. While, in this profession, I do feel that in some way I am making a difference in the world, I often feel several steps removed from those in need. And like other volunteers, I was in search for a way to have the greatest impact. With some experience working with kids, the San Francisco CASA Program seemed like the perfect match for me. After reading the file for a
Read MoreWhen I became semi-retired, I continued to want to impact someone's life in a deeper way as a volunteer. Two years ago, quite by chance, I ran into a woman I had known 15 years before, who has under her belt a decade-long commitment to CASA. The timing of our chance meeting got my attention, and I volunteered. After completing the training, I spent four frustrating months trying to meet with a shut down teenage girl who wanted no contact. So I attended team meetings of the multiple workers struggling to keep her together in her struggling family unit, but
Read MoreMy 12-year-old CASA youth told me there was nothing she wanted to do with her life -- absolutely nothing. I couldn’t believe there really was nothing she wanted to do, no dreams, no desires but every one of my suggestions ended with the same answer. No. She loves her school counselor so I asked, “Would you like to be a counselor like Mrs. Smith? “No, I’d cry all day,” she answered. She loves math. I asked, “Would you like to get paid to solve math problems? You could become an engineer.” “No!” “A scientist?” I added. “No.” “What about working in a retail
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