A multimedia presentation

The program I chose to volunteer with is called CASA. It stands for Court-Appointed Special Advocate. This program is a resource for children and families that are experiencing a rough time. The families involved are dealing with some sort of court case and the children may or may not, depending on the point in the process, be in the foster care system. My role was to get a sense of the child involved and help get a sense of what is in the child’s best interest regarding their future. My volunteering took place in Iron County with children who are from Iron County. The way this program works is having the CASA volunteer show the child a positive influence in their life by doing things that have a positive impact. Most of these children don’t know how to be children or experience age-appropriate activities. I wanted to help them experience that and see how it can impact their futures.

The first step to my project was to find one. I was able to discuss my interests with my academic advisor and she helped me to narrow down my choices. The program that was most interesting to me was the CASA program. It was easy to learn more. I went online and found the director. We set up an appointment where she would interview me for the position, much like a job interview. I knew this was going to be a good fit for me and after meeting with the director, we started right away on the lessons we would be learning over the course of eight weeks. During each week, we would learn more about the program and the potential difficulties we would be dealing with with our assigned child. After the lessons we over, we had the chance to meet our child that we would be working with. River was the name of the child I was assigned.  We discussed some things that might be interesting and settled on the scout program. He needed someone to accompany him to and from scouts each week. While at scouts, we played with other kids his age and learned many of the skills from the handbook. 

The CASA program was amazing to learn about and work with. The information I learned during the training meetings was something that I’ll be able to use during my whole life and not just in my future career. It would’ve been exciting and more informative to see who foster care influences and affects the lives of all ages of children. 

Working with children is hard. Children are the most innocent group to work with and they are so strong. To have gone through the many events we discussed in the trainings and still be able to find joy in daily activities will never cease to amaze me. The foster care system helps these children escape the terrible situations that parents put these kids in but it doesn’t erase the trauma or feelings that come from years of abuse or neglect. 

Many of the topics we discussed in the trainings helped me to see that working with young children may not be the career path for me. I really struggled listening to all the pain that these kids dealt with and all the responsibilities that they had to take on in their families. I was an emotional wreck after hearing of abuse stories from training and reading the book we were required to read. I worry that a career choice like this would change me and my future personal choices. I learned that this is something I have a passion about. Children are our future and I would like to do more to prevent this type of experience by teaching parents and other people skills to better take care of their children in their lives. 

My goal was to learn more about the career that was a potential option for me after graduation. I learned plenty of information to decide that this might not be the best option for my future. I enjoyed the time I spent with the CASA program. The biggest outcome of this experience was the things I learned about myself and the youth in our community. I learned more about Iron County and about the many hardships our community families might be experiencing.

The skills that I acquired while working with the youth and the EDGE courses include patience, planning and preparation, time management, dependability and responsibility, and so many others.

I think that SUU wanted the students to have more experiential learning because it allowed us the opportunity to give back and find out what our degrees have the potential to provide us with after graduation. We are put in situations that aren’t part of the curriculum and these experiences can help us broaden our horizons and get us out of the normal box we put ourselves in. I’m appreciative of the EDGE program because when I first declared my major, I knew that I wanted to work with the troubled youth of the community. After finishing my time volunteering with CASA, I found that isn’t something I could continue for the rest of my life. I was able to get hands-on learning in the career field I thought I wanted for myself.