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Sometimes there are those small and simple solutions that can make the difference between misery and contentment. But with so many children who are sexually, physically and psychologically abused, there are cases in which CASA volunteers find themselves dumbstruck by the depth of suffering they encounter, and saddened by how little they can do. "The right recommendation isn't always clear," says one. "Sometimes it's the lesser of two evils, but you are the one who has gotten all the facts to make that recommendation."
Many volunteers know they have had a hand in keeping a child with a mother who is far from first-rate; many have watched as children were permanently adopted even though they had living parents who professed to want them.
This is not a process of "happily ever after," although there is some of that. But it is about being certain that the interests of the child are clearly understood and articulated, even when there are no easy answers. It is about visiting homes in which you are not welcome, and going to schools in which teachers have given up hope. It is about meeting children who recoil from a hug because they have never had one before. So how can it be that it is also about deep satisfaction and commitment, about people who say they have become their best selves while trying to help one child toward a good life? Perhaps, like most of the work the CASA volunteers do, it is the small moment that tells the story. A volunteer from Florida named Brenda Gowan ran into one of her former kids, a boy named Paul, at a park. It was several years after Brenda had been involved in the case in which Paul was taken away from his mother after he was sexually abused by his mother's violent boyfriend. Brenda was on another case at the park when Paul ran up, jumped into her arms, and whispered, "I remember you."
"How are you doing?" Brenda said.
"See these pants?" the boy replied. "They're brand new. They cost $25 and they're mine."
Just that. Just pants. They're mine.
For more information about CASA, to become an advocate, or to support CASA's work, visit www.nationalCASA.org.
These recollections are adapted from Anna Quindlen's foreword to CASA's collection of their stories (Lighting the Way: Volunteer Child Advocates Speak Out, CWLA Press). Also see other suggested readings in the CASA Book Club.
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