What Do Volunteers Do?

People who give their time to CASA advocacy come from many different places. Some have years of education and professional experience working for children and families. Some have themselves grown up in the foster care system and felt the sorrow of having to move from home to home.

Being a CASA volunteer does not require any special education or background, simply the desire to help abused and neglected children find safe, permanent homes.

So what does it take to become a CASA volunteer?

• The first step: Every volunteer passes a background check and participates in a 30-hour training course.
• After successfully completing the training, the volunteer is assigned his first case. A volunteer's average time commitment to a case is approximately 10 hours per month.
• Volunteer advocates are asked to dedicate themselves to a case until it is closed. The average case lasts about a year and a half.
• Advocates are supervised every step of the way and always have resources readily available.

 Learn more about the typical duties of a CASA volunteer.

Hear from Ryan Whitfill, a volunteer with Dallas CASA, who shares his experience as a new advocate in a National CASA podcast. (MP3 file)