A Central Texas branch of a national organization aimed at helping children is in dire need of volunteers.
Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, volunteers are desperately needed at CASA of Bell & Coryell counties to help the hundreds of children in the child protective system in Central Texas.
When a child is removed from their home, the world as they knew it falls apart. They move into a foster home full of strangers and away from their family.
"Case workers change, foster homes change, everything has the potential to change multiple times, you don't have to change," Nikki Boyle Sapp, a CASA volunteer of six years, said.
In courthouses all across the nation, children sometimes lose their voice. But, that's when their CASA steps in.
"You are a constant, you're someone they can build an on-going relationship with, someone they can say to hey this isn't working for me, why it isn't working, what I'd like to do, what's important to me, where I'd like to go, what I'd like to focus on that may not be heard otherwise," Sapp added.
CASA volunteers listen to the child and speak on their behalf, not just in court, but in school, for medical visits... anything and everything about their world while helping them find a safe and permanent home, hopefully back with their family.
"You're that person where they know you don't have to be there, but you're there for them, and you create a level of worthiness in a child that feels right now that their life has no worth,"Kelly Hardy, the Executive Director of CASA of Bell & Coryell counties, said.
There are only 57 volunteers serving 134 children in Bell and Coryell counties right now, and CASA is idealy looking for volunteers to help with the nearly 500 other children still waiting in line for someone to be their voice.
"There is a child that needs you, I mean really needs you. A child who's in a mess that you don't ever want to see a child in, and they need you to help them," Sapp said.
For more information on CASA of Bell & Coryell Counties and the volunteer program click here.
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