VOLUNTEERS STAY CONNECTED WITH CHILDREN AMID PANDEMIC By Alex Paquet In a time marked by distanced relationships, dedicated community members have gone to great lengths to stay connected with kids in Ohio’s child welfare system. “Often, children who have been abused or neglected lack consistent, responsive and nurturing adult relationships. Trusting and healthy relationships allow children to heal from the trauma they have experienced,” says Bill Payne, a volunteer with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Franklin County.
is invaluable to hear from the child without the child enduring the trauma of physically entering the cCourthouse. My best decisions are made when my judicial lens captures the full picture of the child’s world. I am so very grateful that the CASA staff was able to pivot [to virtual training and visits] to ensure that the children of Franklin County continue to have a voice in the cCourtroom amidst these uncertain times.”
without knowing everything they’d like to. Too often, the information that goes missing is the child’s perspective, a gap that CASA dutifully works to fill.
“I think so much of bias across systems comes from working with many cases with negative outcomes that one may come to expect those negative outcomes,” says Morgan Bommer-Guinn, Director of Volunteer Management for CASA. “If somebody has In addition to straining many social services, as much information as possible, they are the pandemic has exacerbated long-standing able to better gauge the situation with more racial health disparities, creating what CAANJ accuracy, so it is not conflated with their past contributor Rev. Dr. Tim Ahrens calls ‘A experiences.” Pandemic within a Pandemic’. Coinciding Confronting CASA volunteers’ own bias is with The Franklin County Board of Health a recurring part of their training, and a core declaring racism a public health crisis in practice of staff. During training, BommerMay of 2020, many institutions, including Guinn says, “We teach volunteers how to child welfare organizations, have begun self-identify, slow down, and reflect on how using data-driven approaches to examine the personal bias could impact a case before they prevalence of racism and disproportionality begin working with a child or family.” in their work. In Franklin County, for example, African Americans make up 23% Beyond advocating for a child’s best interest, of the population, yet African American simply listening to a child, being present children make up 45% of CASA’s case load. and being a role model can build a child’s While the reasons for this disproportionality resiliency. Between children and CASA are plentiful, addressing bias within child volunteers of color, sometimes that resiliency welfare workers and systems is a crucial step stems from just having a consistent adult to creating better outcomes for children. who looks like them.
CASA is an agency under the Franklin County Board of Commissioners that trains volunteers to become lay Guardians ad Litem. These volunteers ensure that children who have been abused or neglected have a consistent voice in court hearings concerning their placement, visitation schedule, and service plan. Over the course of up to two years, a volunteer makes monthly visits with the child or sibling group, talks to their parents, school counselors, and clinicians, and then shares the child’s perspective in court, advocating for their best interest. This consistency and focus on the child’s perspective have become all the more Bias does its worst work when people important amid the COVID-19 pandemic. make quick decisions with incomplete data. Sometimes, child welfare workers “As a Judge,” says Franklin County Domestic and magistrates are tasked with making and Juvenile Court Judge Lasheyl Stroud, “it large decisions about the lives of children
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“The power of being there,” says Bill Payne, “cannot be underestimated.” Alex Paquet is the Volunteer Outreach Coordinator for CASA of Franklin County.
The Columbus & Dayton African American 2021 The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015
