Directing efforts of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) comes naturally for Amy Daniels.
She took leadership of the program in November 2007, eight years after she and husband Robert Poydack moved to the area from Wyoming. He came to work for Williams Pipeline, now Southern Star; she had practiced law in Wyoming, her home state, and previously in California.
They lived in Iola for a time, closer to his work in Welda, before moving to Chanute so she could take a position with a law firm there.
“I worked as a paraprofessional in Chanute” for six years, Daniels said, allowing she found the assistance’s role a good fit, and preferred not to take the time to prep for and take the Kansas bar.
All has worked well, for her and a legion of kids who benefit from the CASA volunteers that Daniels directs through the 31st Judicial District CASA organization from an office in Allen County’s courthouse.
“I did guardian ad litem work in California,” legalese describing an attorney’s role in representing a child in court, “and we have been foster parents since 2001 for 25 kids, including two at present,” Daniels said.
She has 18 advocates, including herself, in the four counties of the 31st Judicial District, Allen, Neosho, Wilson and Woodson. Seven live in Allen County who accompany children to court in Iola. The Allen Countians are Janice Parker, Mickey Hicks, Bobbi Gilpin, Kathy Gilbert, Cathy Lynch, Karen Lee and Phyllis Loomis.
During 2011 CASA volunteers were involved with 128 children who were in court to deal with child in need of care cases in the four counties’ courts.
“A single advocate is limited to representing two children, but that can grow to several because one case may involve several siblings and, at the judge’s discretion, the limit may be raised to three,” Daniels said.
Her unit is authorized 20 advocates, two more than are in the fold, and Daniels thinks she could get permission to have as many as 25 for the four counties if enough volunteers surfaced.
“We have four or five prospects right now for a training session that will start in September and we’d like to have more,” she said.
Training is much more than a cursory overview of what occurs when a child goes to court.
Background checks, by Social and Rehabilitation Services and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, are done initially and each application must have five personal references. Next comes training classes of 30 hours and observation of at least four court cases.
The “final” requires a potential volunteer to extract facts from a court case and write a comprehensive report, to demonstrate the person is knowledgeable of what occurred.
“WE ADVOCATE for the best interests of children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect from their caretakers, not through any fault of their own,” Daniels said.
“CASA volunteers are people from the community who have a desire to help children,” she added. “They’re another layer of protection for kids,” whose fate is being decided by the court.
