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LULING — The road through the judicial system can be a winding and confusing path, especially for abused and neglected children in the foster care system who may feel like they are left without a voice.

Court Appointed Special Advocates, also known as CASA volunteers, are caring and compassionate adults who wake up every morning with a goal to connect children to a safe environment and a permanent home. However, the number of advocates under the local Child Advocacy Services umbrella is constantly in flux, and more volunteers are needed to best serve the children of the community.

Prospective volunteers are invited to attend a training course starting Jan. 27 at the Child Advocacy Services Luling Office, located at 131 Lakewood Drive Suite 1. The sessions are offered from 5:30 to 8:45 p.m. once a week for five weeks.

At the conclusion of the training, the new CASA volunteers will observe a court hearing and be sworn in by a judge.

Child Advocacy Services covers a 10-parish region that includes St. John the Baptist, St. James and St. Charles parishes. Other parishes under the CAS umbrella are Ascension, Assumption, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, Livingston, St. Helena and Tangipahoa. Child Advocacy Services representative Donna Bliss is constantly working to recruit volunteers to assist children through court hearings.

“We are assigned to a child’s case through the judicial system,” Bliss said. “As the agency that trains volunteers, it is our job to have volunteers ready to go when we receive assignments. Sometimes we do have children who are waiting, and our volunteers are already assigned to other children. That creates a gap.”

As of last week, there were two children in St. John the Baptist Parish left waiting for a court-appointed advocate. Across the greater region, there are more than 40 children waiting for volunteer placements.

“Volunteers only have to commit to one year to serve a child’s case, so we are in a constant state of needing volunteers,” Bliss said. “That’s no different from any CASA program in the state and across the country.”

Shannon Brown, advocate supervisor for the LaPlace Regional Office, outlined the curricula for the five-week training. All sessions are conducted in a group setting, and light meals will be provided.

“Different weeks have different topics,” Brown said. “The first week is just a review of what CASA is and the procedures and file system that we have.”

A pre-test will be administered during Session One to gauge how much background knowledge the prospective CASA volunteers have at the beginning of the course.

During the second session, participants will do a case study and receive an introduction to court report writing.

Session Three is all about trauma, resilience and communication skills. Participants will also review good and bad examples of court reporting.

The fourth session will introduce another case study, cultural competency and advocating for older youth. Finally, the fifth session will educate volunteers on community resources and debriefing of a case. The last session also includes a post-test, according to Brown.

“In each session, you have a review of the previous session,” Brown said. She urges anyone interested in the course to call 985-536-8384 to learn more about CASA or enroll.

Bliss said CASA volunteers have some flexibility in how much time they put into the program.

“We realize volunteers are just that. They have families. They have jobs,” Bliss said. “No one there needs to be a social worker or have a law enforcement background. You can be from any walk of life and feel like you have a call or a pull in your life to advocate for a child. You’re going to be getting a lot of foundational information that will teach them what it means to become an advocate.”

To sign up for the Jan. 27 training, email dbliss@childadv.net or visit childadv.net. Under the “Get Involved” tab, there is a volunteer section with a link to the application. Please sign up as soon as possible.

Bliss said Child Advocacy Services is open to establishing community partnerships with local churches and other organizations to host upcoming trainings. Another training session will be announced in spring 2020, location to be announced.

CASA training is unrelated to foster parent training, according to Bliss.

“Fostering is through a different organization,” Bliss said. “We don’t remove children and we don’t recruit for foster parents. We only serve the children that are assigned through the judicial system.”