23 New CASA Volunteers Sworn in as Officers of the Court
Twenty-three community members became officers of the court during a CASA of the Pikes Peak Region swearing-in ceremony at the El Paso County Combined Courts on Tuesday.
“I want to extend a great thank you to all of you for helping out in our process,” Chief 4th Judicial District Court Judge William Bain told the new class of volunteers just before swearing them in. “We have lots and lots of cases where we always need help so judges can make good decisions for families.”
Sixteen of the new volunteers were sworn in as Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) which means they will now begin the important work of advocating for children who have become caught up in the court system after being removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.
The remaining seven volunteers were sworn in as Supervised Exchange and Parenting Time (SEPT) facilitators. These individuals will ensure a safe environment for children to develop and maintain healthy relationships with non-custodial parents when there is a court order in place for supervised visitation.
Last year, CASA volunteers served 710 children in the Pikes Peak Region. However there were at least 200 children that CASA could not advocate for due to a shortage of volunteers. These new volunteers will help CASA as it continues to strive to serve all of the children in need in the Pikes Peak Region by the year 2020.
To learn more about how you can become trained as a CASA volunteer, please visit www.casappr.org.
Congratulations to the new CASA volunteers!
COURT APPOINTED SPECIAL ADVOCATES
Sophia Almedina
Mary Beaudin
Shelby Busboom
Cynthia Dingman
Shawn Hendrickson
Sarah Kavanah
Michele Matthews
Christine McElhaney
Paul Nicks
Stephanie Phillips
Khayriyyah Simmons
Mandy Sollenberger
Gilbert Suazo
Edward Whisenhunt
Maureen Williams
Tamara Williams
SEPT FACILITATORS
Crystal Erickson
Naomi Hill
Melissa May Hoyla
Cathy Larson
Sonja Purifoy
Scott Podlogan
Christopher Wurster
About CASA of the Pikes Peak Region
CASA of the Pikes Peak Region is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded in 1989 as a local program of the National CASA Association. Serving El Paso and Teller Counties, the organization’s core mission is to recruit, train, and support citizen volunteers in its Dependency & Neglect program to provide a voice and advocate for victims of child abuse and neglect. The nonprofit also operates a Supervised Exchange & Parenting Time (SEPT) program, Milton Foster Children’s Fund (MFCF) & the Hanger, Life Long Links, and Children & Families in Transition. With more than 400 volunteers who put in roughly 19,000 hours in the 2017-2018 fiscal year, CASA of the Pikes Peak Region provided advocates for 710 children and served more than 900 children through additional programming. For more information, visit www.casappr.org.