Court Appointed Special Advocate Montgomery County Maryland Inc., DBA Voices for Children Montgomery

Voices for Children Montgomery’s vision is to be the leading voice championing and advocating for every child in Montgomery County foster care. Our mission is to train and support volunteer advocates for children in Montgomery County foster care to ensure their placement in safe, permanent homes.

Volunteer advocates are carefully screened and complete 40 hours of intensive pre-service training before being accepted as a CASA. The training sessions provide prospective volunteers with background information on the child welfare system, child development, risk factors for abuse and neglect, substance abuse, and domestic violence. During training, volunteer responsibilities are clearly defined and potential volunteers participate in a court observation and learn about court report writing. Guest speakers, professionals in their fields, meet with the training group to clarify the role of the child’s and parents’ attorneys, Juvenile Court system, and Department of Health and Human Services. Upon successful completion of the training and screening process, the new volunteer is assigned to a child. Once assigned, the CASA volunteer investigates all aspects of the child’s life, including his or her present living situation, biological and extended family, school situation and areas of special need. Each CASA volunteer is required to meet with his or her Case Supervisor monthly; they work together to formulate written recommendations to the Juvenile Court judges as to the child’s best interests.

VFCM fulfills a unique role in Montgomery County as the only organization that recruits and trains volunteers who provide detailed information about the best interests of Children In Need of Assistance (CINAs) directly to the Juvenile Court judges. The professionals involved with a child who is under Court jurisdiction, including Child Welfare caseworkers, therapists and lawyers, have large caseloads at any given time. Each CASA volunteer focuses his or her time and attention on researching and assessing the needs of just one child. Thus, CASA volunteers often provide information about permanent placement options and necessary medical, emotional and educational services that is critical to both the short- and long-term well-being of the children served. As the Chief Administrative Judge of Montgomery County stated in a recent letter of support for VFCM: “The value of the assistance provided to the Juvenile Court by the volunteers of Voices for Children Montgomery, Maryland is exceeded only by the impact the volunteers have in the lives of the children to whom they are assigned.”

VFCM is currently comprised of more than 200 Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASAs. The primary beneficiaries of VFCM are abused and neglected children under the jurisdiction of the Montgomery County Juvenile Court system; however, the children are living in foster placements throughout the State. Once assigned to a child, the volunteer works with his or her VFCM Case Supervisor to formulate written recommendations to the Juvenile Court judges as to the child's best interests. During calendar year 2018, CASA volunteers submitted 289 written reports to the Juvenile Court. Over 85% of the recommendations made by volunteers to the Court for services and permanency plans for children were ordered by the judges and ultimately implemented.

VFCM is the oldest CASA program in Maryland and, since it's founding, has served more than 2,200 abused and/or neglected children in Montgomery County's foster care system. As the program celebrates its 32nd year, VFCM must replace approximately 50-60 volunteers each year. Therefore, to increase the number of available volunteers by, for example, 30 volunteers, we must train at least 90 new volunteers in a year. In addition, VFCM remains committed to maintaining an average volunteer to child ratio of one-to-one, which means we must recruit a new volunteer for each new child served. National and State CASA guidelines require that local CASA programs maintain a ratio of one staff member for every 30 volunteers. By maintaining low volunteer to child and case supervisor to volunteer ratios, VFCM is able to offer the individual attention and advocacy necessary to truly make a difference in children’s lives. In order to continue to increase the number of volunteer advocates available to serve children in need, VFCM must garner the additional resources necessary to increase the size of our professional staff.