T-Shirts!

It costs roughly $1,000 a year to advocate for an abused child in Franklin County, Ohio. And as you can imagine, this money can be hard to come by. For every one of our “CASA for Children” shirts you purchase, $5 will go directly to CASA of Franklin County. This money will help them recruit, screen, train and support community volunteers to be advocates for these neglected children, who are trapped in a heartbreaking situation through no fault of their own.

Click Here for More Information on Buying a Shirt

Volunteer Recognition

Save the Date!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

3-5pm at

King Arts Complex

We will be awarding our volunteers for their service!

Join us for this exciting afternoon.

Two Important Messages

 I am passing along important messages from OHIO CASA and the Supreme Court of Ohio.

As you are aware, Rule 48 of the Ohio Supreme Court Rules of Superintendence created new training requirements for attorney GALs and CASA/GALs. The Supreme Court of Ohio offers courses for Continuing legal Education (CLE) courses that fulfill this requirement for attorney GALs. These courses are designed with attorneys in mind and currently, there are very limited space in these classes for  attorney GALs.

The Supreme Court of Ohio has asked that CASA/GALS do not attend the CLE courses that they offer.  We ask you to respect this request from the Supreme Court and remind you that OHIO CASA and CASA of Franklin County will continue to offer courses that fulfill the annual 3 hour requirement for CASA/GALs.

We are holding several in-service trainings in April that will fulfill the Rule 48 requirements. Every volunteer will be required to attend at least one of these trainings. The trainings will offer complete updates on Rule 48, training on use of the new Court Report, an introduction to a revised Monthly Update form and the opportunity to sign all annual forms (which is also a requirement of Rule 48.)  You will hear more about the trainings in the very near future as we are still compiling all of the compliance information.

Additionally, we wanted to share more information about OHIO CASA. OHIO CASA is an excellent organization, and membership is open to our volunteers.

Membership is $25 dollars and the membership form is attached to this email.  Among many other benefits, OHIO CASA offers an e-newsletter and Volunteer Corner.   Our volunteer focus groups widely stated that volunteers would love a way to communicate with each other.   While the Volunteer Corner is not necessarily interactive, it is an excellent format for volunteers around the state to share their input and suggestions for dealing with situations that all CASA GALs may encounter in their role as a CASA Volunteer. This month’s question is:

 “What are the best methods you’ve found for dealing with a resistant information source (ex. Kin placement that doesn’t feel you should be intruding OR a therapist that doesn’t understand why you have access to information)?

Responses can be sent to andi@ohiocasa.org

All members will receive the e-newsletter from Ohio CASA.  If you are not ready to join, but would like to be on their mailing list, please contact OHIO CASA at ohiocasa@ohiocasa.org.

At CASA of Franklin County we are continually trying to be attentive to your wants and needs and this Volunteer Corner provides a way for volunteers to share experiences. 

Please contact us if you need more information on either of these topics.

Thank you again for all the work you do for abused and neglected children of Franklin County!

OHIO CASA Conference

We are passing along a question posed from the OHIO CASA organization.

The state CASA conference will be held September 30-October 2. OHIO CASA is wondering if people would be interested in appetizers, a cash bar and karaoke on the Friday night of the conference. There may be a small fee involved, around 10 dollars to participate.
What are your thoughts about this? Please comment below!

Thank you for all you do for CASA!

CASA of Franklin County Tee-Shirts!

Many of you have told us that you would like to see more CASA-related apparel than is offered by National CASA. Therefore, we have connected with a company named Greater Than Goods (GTG) to provide CASA volunteers, friends, and supporters with an opportunity to help CASA of Franklin County.

Please check out the designs GTG has created exclusively for our program. The price will be around $20. I know that this amount is a bit high for a t-shirt. However, CASA will make money on each one. So, you will get a unique t-shirt and contribute to CASA at the same time!

Of course, as budgets have tightened in this economy, it’s important that we spend money wisely. Our deal with GTG requires us after six months to purchase from them any unsold shirts remaining in their inventory. You can help us with our ordering by answering a few questions.

1) How likely are you to purchase a CASA t-shirt (for yourself and/or a friend)?

a. Very Likely

b. Likely

c. Probably won’t purchase

2) If you answered “Very Likely” or “Likely”, which design will you buy?

a. Light of Hope design

b. House design

c. I’ll buy one of each!

3) If you answered “Probably won’t purchase”, which design do you prefer?

a. Light of Hope
b. House





Thank you for your assistance!

1-2-3 Contact!

Stay Connected to CASA of Franklin County!

We have moved quickly toward many suggestions from the focus groups regarding technology! Most participants wanted us to use technology to keep us connected and we are actively working toward that goal.

In the summer we launched a new website,  http://www.casacolumbus.org/.  Please take a look at the website if you have not done so already. It has excellent resources for current volunteers including case forms, monthly update forms, court reports and contact logs. Many in the focus groups asked for links to other resources, and the website houses links to various community resources including local and national child advocacy organizations. There are also links to training resources from State and National CASA.

National CASA has also released a brand new website which is an excellent resource for volunteers. The address is http://www.casaforchildren.org/ .  Also be sure to check out the Ohio CASA website, http://www.ohiocasa.org/. Please check back on these sites periodically, as our web presence grows, the sites will continue to improve and become even more useful.

Because of the amazing response from our focus groups regarding online communicating and social media , we have developed this blog, and have enhanced our facebook fan page. Check out our facebook page! We have increased the frequency of updating and the amount of content regarding announcements, current volunteer training classes, and pictures and videos. We hope that facebook continues to be a resource to foster online networking among our volunteers and supporters.

Be sure to check us out on youtube as well, here on our You Tube channel.

Please be aware that we are developing an Online Communications and Social Media Policy for CASA of Franklin County staff and volunteers. This policy will guide our activities on the web, and will help volunteers and staff talk about their involvement with CASA of Franklin County in a transparent and professional manner.

CASA of Franklin County additionally has plans for adding a secure discussion board that will allow volunteers to post and comment with each other, but several things needs to take shape before this happens. Because all of this take time, we did want to take advantage of this blog as a way to share all of the information from the focus sessions and as a type of e-newsletter.

In the future we also hope to post the new monthly update forms and annual evaluations forms directly on our website, for increase access for volunteers. You will continue to be able to fill these forms out and mail or e-mail them to our office.

We will also have exciting information in the new year regarding exciting and new online donation activities and opportunities for all supporters of CASA.

We hope to provide more of what you are looking for in the not too distant future and we appreciate your patience and input!

Stay Connected!

CASA of Franklin County wants volunteers to feel appreciated, to stay engaged and to have the ability to give us feedback. We asked the focus groups how we can work together to accomplish these goals.

Activities

Many people wanted to have more social opportunities, such as a book club, bowling club or monthly dinners out for our volunteers. Another great suggestion during the holiday time is Caroling for CASA of Franklin County! Volunteer-sponsored activities are a great way for volunteer GALs to get together and show their support of our work and mission. If you would like to organize these events, please just give us a call. We can provide you with any CASA of Franklin County materials you may want. Be creative!

In a future post we will discuss ways we are planning in using technology to keep us all connected!

Relationships
Another topic that stimulated a lot of discussion was the relationships between volunteers and staff attorneys. We know that this relationship works best when viewed as a partnership. Staff attorneys should be your first resource for questions, bouncing ideas off of each other, and a great place just to vent about your case! Staff Attorneys are also available to meet with you before court hearings in the morning. We have an open door policy and would love to have you stop by our offices!

Because we are all individuals and work in an imperfect system, we recognize that people have different personalities and some people may be easier to work with than others. Some volunteers like a ‘strictly business’ relationship with their staff attorney and some prefer a more casual relationship. These differences are expected when working with over 200 volunteers in the nature of the work we do. Thankfully, volunteers at the focus groups noted that almost universally they are comfortable going to their assigned staff attorney with any issues.

We at CASA of Franklin County know that staff turnover or other inconsistencies can be a challenge, especially when working on a long term case. That is why we have created a Staff Attorney protocol and a Volunteer Handbook. These policies help keep staff attorney and volunteer expectations universal and consistent. We want you to know that you are valued and want to make sure the relationship with each staff attorney is respectful and positive.

Communication is key to any good relationship and we are open to suggestions for improving our channels and/or methods of communication in any way that we can.

Feedback

Feedback is an integral part of being involved at CASA of Franklin County. There are many ways to gather feedback and we have used surveys, evaluations and even informal methods, such as emails and conferences.

We ask all volunteers to complete a five question case closing summary form. Each of these completed forms are reviewed and any feedback provided, good or bad, is addressed. We also conduct an annual survey that goes to our constituencies in the community and to all volunteers. This information is complied and evaluated. And, most recently, we conducted the Volunteer Focus Groups which created a lot of great opinions and direction for future policy and procedures. We look forward to greater participation in all of these things. As stated above, we have an open door policy at CASA of Franklin County. If something is great or even not-so-great- we want to know about it!

As you are aware we are working on streamlining our annual volunteer evaluation system. Look for more information to come in January!