National CASA Podcast

In this podcast Dawn Rego, conference and events manager and Anthony Petrarca, training director talk about some of the workshops and events lined up for the 2012 National CASA Conference being held in Washington D.C. June 9-12.

In this second installment of podcasts on The Peer Coordinator Model we talk with program staff to hear their experiences on transitioning to this model.  Megan Shultz from CASA of Lane County in Springfield, OR offers insight into the process including lessons learned and tips that she hopes will be helpful to other CASA programs considering this model.

In this second installment of podcasts on The Peer Coordinator Model we talk with program staff to hear their experiences on transitioning to this model.  Laurie Laughlin from Maricopa County CASA in Phoenix, AZ discusses the challenges she has experienced and the success that she has seen, especially with volunteer retention.  

National CASA is working to find ways to provide a CASA volunteer for every child who needs one. In this podcast Michael Heaton, western regional program officer, talks about how CASA programs can maximize their resources, serve more kids and build stronger relationships with their volunteers using a peer-coordinator model.

We thank Rebecca Grossman for pioneering the podcasts for National CASA and we look forward to bringing more educational and informative topics to the CASA/GAL network with new upcoming podcasts with Sybil Turner.  Click on the link below to hear what topics you can look forward to.  In the meantime, we encourage you to search the podcast library for any topics that you might have missed.  If there are topics that you would like to hear more about, please email your ideas to sybilt@casaforchildren.org

This podcast is an interview with Syeda Naqvi from CASA of Cook County in which she discusses the importance of a youth's health and its effects on their well being in the future.

This interview is a follow up to the podcast "Autism Spectrum Disorder." It is the story of a volunteer from Coweta CASA, Inc. in Newnan, GA, who advocated for a child diagnosed with autism. You will hear what resources she used and recommendations she made in order to ensure the best possible outcome for the child she served.

The latest edition of "A Question of Balance" is a must-have for every person in our CASA/GAL network, if not for every person who works in child welfare. The book brings together all the pieces of the puzzle we work in and focuses in on what is truly important when decisions are being made. In this podcast Janet Ward, National CASA regional program officer and author of "A Question of Balance", talks about the latest edition of this book.

In this podcast, foster care alumna Lauren Mueller describes how her relationship with her CASA volunteer advocate, Stephanie, changed the way she looked at herself and, ultimately, gave her the motivation and confidence to pursue her goals and dreams. This audio presentation is from the closing session of the 2011 National CASA conference in Chicago, IL.

Stacy Shook, a board certified behavior analyst and the director of Northwest Behavioral Associates in Seattle, WA, discusses autism spectrum disorder, how it may be treated, and possible services for children and their caregivers.

Stephen McCrea, CASA Supervisor with CASA for Children in Portland, OR, talks about the history of mental health treatment of foster youth, including the introduction of psychotropic medications, their use now and what a CASA/GAL volunteer should know when working with medicated youth. Before working with the CASA program, McCrea was a crisis counselor and a residential counselor for youth.

In this podcast Monica Boguki, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis, discusses issues around families living in poverty, their battle to get out of poverty, and ways a CASA/GAL volunteer advocate can assist these families.

In this podcast we talk about bullying with Tracy Flynn, a trainer and consultant. She describes signs a child might show, the long-term effects of bullying and how you can help children who are experiencing bullying.

You asked the questions, now we have the answers. Hear how National CASA's CEO stays hopeful in today's difficult economic climate and how he feels his role effect our network.

Brian Washburn, training director at National CASA, became a CASA volunteer advocate in 2007. In this interview he will explain why he became a volunteer and how this work affects his role developing the National CASA curriculum.

In this podcast, you will hear how CASA of Atlantic and Cape May Counties is keeping volunteers engaged by offering ongoing training opportunities.

A CASA volunteer from Washington state who has both personal and professional experience dealing with families affected by developmental delays discusses how to advocate effectively either for children with developmental delays or for children whose parents have delays.

In this podcast Alicia Kinser, Program Manager, talks about the process of taking the Family Advocates CASA Program in Boise, ID, from a staff driven model to one of volunteer management.

One goal of CASA/GAL advocates is to ensure that the youth they serve visit with their biological parents. When their parents are incarcerated, this task is tricky-but certainly not impossible. In this podcast two woman who work on Project Family Connect describe the importance of the parent/child connection while discussing how advocates may overcome obstacles to facilitating meetings between children and incarcerated parents.

In this podcast, Lisa Barsky Firsker Phd., Executive Director from Morris and Sussex Counties, discusses how to work with children who are dealing with the death of a family member or other significant loss in their lives. Firsker describes services children may need and shares tips for volunteers about what they should expect from grieving children and how they can work through their own grief.