12chachacha

I'm curious as to your opinion of CASA. I just became a volunteer, but haven't gotten a case yet.

Thank you. And thank you for the AMA.

Ah, it seems that my area has a decent opinion of the organization, but the type of volunteer certainly makes a difference- although we have our fair share of exactly what you described. For the record, I am both white and female, but I would be stretching it to consider myself even lower middle-class, and I'm 21. Hopefully that will help. I intend to treat this as a part-time job, at least when the case(s) require that of me.

Thank you for your advice. I spent some time as a victim's advocate, and you are so right. Everyone has their problems. Just talk to them like you would anybody else.

Interesting. In my area, it is both a CASA volunteer (non-attorney & the position I will be doing) and a GAL (attorney).

They are not required to complete CLE classes every year related to their field of practice.

That's strange. As a volunteer, I'm required to complete training hours every year.

I would say to talk to the judges and find out who they respect as a GAL, or CASA worker in your instance. Judges usually have certain attorneys that they try to appoint to cases more often or if they know the case is going to be particularly tough, they'll appoint a certain attorney.

We definitely have "that guy" in our area, and my office brought him in to do a Q&A during our training. He's the best. I'll be sure to keep up with him though, he was incredibly open.

You are going to see the shittiest of the shitty situations and it can take an emotional toll on you.

Yeah, I'm expecting this unfortunately. As I mentioned above, I spent some time as a victim's advocate, and the same thing happened there. Had to leave the room to throw up once, it got that bad. But, I know what my abilities are and when I need my outlets from the experience.

Thank you, and thanks for the reply. Good advice, I appreciate it.