MyConnection APRIL 6, 2016
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Published every Wednesday by The Newnan Times-Herald
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Coweta CASA Seeking More Volunteers By KANDICE BELL
C
kandice@newnan.com
oweta CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) are accepting applications for new volunteers to assist with the oversight of Coweta foster children. CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children and to make sure children are protected and their needs are being protected in and out of the courtroom. CASA Volunteer Coordinator Jennifer Hungerford oversees and assists the volunteers. “We have about 60 active volunteers,” said Hungerford. “I supervise half of them and our other volunteer coordinator, Sherie Pepper, coordinates the other half.” Hungerford said the volunteers act as the extra eyes and ears for the children in foster
care to make sure everything is going well in their temporary new home. “The volunteers go out and visit the children in the homes,” said Hungerford. “They also attend court dates and compose court reports and observe parent visits at the DFCS office. Case managers have so many cases under their belt, so we work with them as much as we can. Many times, if our volunteers weren’t going out, we wouldn’t know a lot of things about the children in these homes. We pick up on things they don’t see. We go to court with our volunteers and even on home visits if they want us to. We really support our volunteers.” Hungerford added that volunteers usually only have one case at a time. “Although they may have one case, this usually includes siblings,” said Hungerford. “We have one volunteer who has a sibling group
that contains seven children and another volunteer has a group of six siblings. Volunteers typically spend about 10 hours a month on their case. A volunteer can have more cases if they wish. We have volunteers who prefer a specific age group, but the child can be anywhere from birth to 18 years old.” Hungerford said volunteers are on a case until the child has been place in a safe and permanent situation. “Sometimes it’s family reunification and other times it’s not,” said Hungerford. “We just want whatever is in the best interest of the child to be done and sometimes that’s not family reunification. ” Volunteers complete a training that lasts about five weeks and involves classroom and oWnline instruction. “We do very extensive background checks,” said Hungerford. “We also conduct volunteer interviews to
go more in depth about what a volunteer does. In-classroom training is on Thursdays from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. We also provide dinner. The rest of the instruction is online and usually takes about an hour and a half of PHOTO BY KANDICE BELL time each week.” “We are so fortunate to Mindy Smith (left) and Jennifer Hungerford (right) with CASA are seeking more volunteers to help protect the foster children in have great community support,” said Executive Director Coweta County. Mindy Smith. “The Hampton get what they need and that’s of continuing education Inn behind Red Lobster lets each year. Once training is us use their conference room what CASA is.” Hungerford also stressed completed, the volunteers are free of charge for the in-classthat although children may room training.” sworn in by a juvenile court Smith that anyone can be a start in Coweta, they could be judge prior to obtaining their volunteer as long as they’re at moved to a different city. first case. “We have cases as far as least 21 years old and have a The next training sessions Valdosta,” said Hungerford. clean background. will be May 5 to June 9 and “We have volunteers as old “Currently, we only have 12 Sept. 1 to Oct. 6. Volunteers foster families in Coweta.” as 80,” said Smith. “We have interested in the May 5 trainIn 2015, CASA served 128 a need for more volunteers. children and their volunteers ing session should have appliRegrettably, more children cations completed by May 1, had clocked 2,320 hours and are being taken into foster which can be found online at 20,000 miles. care. As much as you give, www.cowetacasa.org at the In addition to training and you get so much back. They volunteer tab or by visiting need us, but we need them to. a interview, volunteers must CASA in the Rutledge Center have four references and are They need someone to love and care and make sure they required to complete 12 hours on 61 Hospital Rd.
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House Hunters
Assist Local Couple with House Hunting
PHOTO BY DANIELLE TREUTEL
Left to right are Tim Stout, Danielle Treutel and Hector Tirado. Stout is the couple’s agent and helped them in the final selection of their home while filming for HGTV’s House Hunters.
for a fixer-upper type of house. I thought about House Hunters and was like what the heck why not. HGTV House Hunters assisted So, I randomly applied and waited a local couple with finding a new to see what would happen. It was home suitable for their growing an online application and you were family. asked to tell a little about yourself House Hunters is a reality show and what you were looking for. We that follows families or individuals got a call in January from them sayas they view a selection of homes ing they were interested in casting to look at based on their preference us.” and price range. Treutel added that the producers Danielle Treutel said she and Hecof the show said they normally stay tor Tirado were in desperate need of in or above Atlanta. more space. “I think the main reason they “We had been staying in our casted us was because me and Hechouse in Newnan since 2008,” said tor had different views about the Treutel. “We decided to sell that type of house we wanted, so it made house, because we were outgrowing it interesting,” said Treutel. “We it. We had our second daughter and were looking for something in a betthere was not enough room in there ter area, preferably in the Northgate for all of their stuff. There was no district. Our budget was $175,000, set area for play, toys or for kids to which I knew would be hard to find do homework; that location was just in that area. I wanted a four bedtoo cramped.” room ranch-style house with a ton “We put our house on the marof land. He wanted a move-in-ready ket in November 2015,” said Treuhouse with very little land. I believe tel. ““The house sold in about he didn’t want a big yard, because five weeks. I wanted to keep our he knew he would be in charge of the upkeep. These were completely budget really low, so I was looking By KANDICE BELL
kandice@newnan.com
different views.” Treutel said they viewed three houses, which is typical, that can be seen on the show. “It was very helpful,” said Treutel. “They will open your minds, because they’ve seen so many houses. They don’t necessarily do anything to help you get the home the way you want it, but they do come and show you around. It’s not a ton of money, but it’s a neat experience. We filmed in downtown Newnan for a little while, so everyone will be able to see that on the show as well.” Treutel said they have finished filming and the show will air in the fall. “We filmed five, full 12-hour days,” said Treutel. “They pretty much asked how we felt and they told us how to express it better to make sure viewers could understand it.” Treutel said the show will air an update after they have lived in the house for a month, which will air six months after it has been filmed.
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