Volunteer Spotlight:Jane Soder

My grandma is a CASA volunteer. She helps kids who can’t live with their parents.

Jane Soder has seen how addiction, poverty and mental illness can cause lives to spiral out of control. After 10-plus years as a CASA volunteer with King County Dependency CASA in Seattle, she has deep empathy for parents who wish they could straighten out their lives but simply can’t. She often thinks about the thin line of circumstance that separates those derailed parents from her own three children, who are also parents.

When Jane stands up for a child in court, she asks herself, “What if this were my grandchild? What would I do to make sure he or she ended up in the very best possible situation?” And whatever that is, Jane does it.

This visceral dedication to the children she serves as a volunteer for Seattle-based CASA of King County makes Jane an outstanding advocate, says her CASA supervisor, Napoleon Caldwell. By accepting the most challenging and complex cases and staying with them for years, he says, “Jane has made a qualitative difference in the lives of children.”

Many of those children are Native American, which means their cases fall under the jurisdiction of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). This act seeks to preserve native culture by giving tribal governments a strong voice in custody decisions. Jane’s journey navigating ICWA cases—and in the process breaking through her own cultural assumptions—has helped her earn the trust of the families with whom she works.

When children can find safe, permanent homes within their own culture, Jane says, the child and the tribe benefit. When Native American children are placed into non-Indian homes, Jane helps broker formal, binding cultural agreements between tribes and adoptive families that spell out the steps parents or guardians will take to keep the child connected to his or her tribe.

Jane, an economist, was about to retire when a newspaper ad recruiting CASA volunteers caught her eye. “I was looking for volunteer work that I could stick with and that would stick with me,” she says. She found that, she says, and so much more.

“Jane believes that everyone deserves to have someone looking out for them,” says Napoleon, her CASA supervisor. One of her cases, he notes, involves a child with developmental disabilities so profound that he cannot even recognize her. “Jane is this child’s greatest champion,” says Napoleon. “She believes that the people who are least capable of advocating for themselves are most deserving of good advocacy.”

Recently, Jane’s 8-year-old grandson, Josh, interviewed his grandmother for a school report on philanthropy. Here is an excerpt:

I liked interviewing my grandma because I’m proud of what she does. I’m also happy that she helps kids have a better life—because if I were one of those kids I would want help too.

Meet other CASA and guardian ad litem volunteers:

• Jo Lopez, Spartanburg County GAL Program, SC
• Joe Sternberg, CASA of McHenry County, IL
• Frankye Hull, Kershaw County Guardian ad Litem Program, SC
• Dee Horn, Fulton County CASA, GA
• Rosa Hernandez, CASA of Central Texas
• Pat and John Stackhouse, Miami County CASA Program, IL
• Venessa Smith, 11th Judicial District Guardian ad Litem Program, Miami, FL