Pre-Service Training
Volunteer pre-service training is offered several times per year, providing a solid foundation for the advocate role.
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CASA pre-service training offers:
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Completion over a 6 week period – help two evenings per week
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A formal National CASA curriculum, enhanced with interactive exercises that help community trainees understand cultural differences, the foster care system, the case process, and much more.
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Presentations from several guest speakers, including both Sangamon County Juvenile court judges
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Instruction on Optima and writing court reports
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Training concludes with a swearing in ceremony at the courthouse where the Juvenile court judge makes each volunteer an official Court Appointed Special Advocate. Soon after, each new CASA will be assigned their first child/case.
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Questions? Please contact CASAinfo@co.sangamon.il.us
Continuing Education
Sangamon County CASA supports the continuing education requirement – minimum 12 hours per year – by holding CASA Brown Bag events monthly. Each session covers an engaging, relevant topic – from Intensive Placement Stabilization, DCFS Investigations to Domestic Violence – and provides volunteers another opportunity to learn and connect with CASA staff and other volunteers.
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In addition, Illinois CASA offers in-service webinars, podcasts and on-site training opportunities to support each CASA advocate’s continued education requirements.
Resources
Optmia Login
Optima is the data management software CASA of Sangamon County selected for staff and CASA case management. You will use it for record-keeping, generating court reports and managing cases. Designed by CASA experts with over four decades of real-life CASA management, technical and data security experience, it is the software of choice for many CASA chapters nationwide.
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After Pre-Service Training and being sworn in, each CASA receives an Optima login for easy online management of his or her case from any location.
Change a Child’s Story
For children who have been abused & neglected trying to navigate the juvenile court and social services system, a CASA advocate can mean the difference between homelessness and a safe dwelling… dropping out or excelling in school… unemployment or a career path… incarceration or freedom… failure or success in life. At any given moment, they have the power to say this is not how this story is going to end. easy.