I signed up for a year of service through AmeriCorp Vista to serve my year at Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children of Monmouth County back in August of 2011. I had no idea at the time, the impact myself and fellow AmeriCorp Vistas serving a year of service at CASA would be able to have and the tremendous impact my work would have on me.

I took a Marketing & Communications Coordinator position which seemed very well suited to me as I had previous experience working with social media, websites and have worked on many collaborative events which resulted in great skills in creating and maintaining important relationships. I got the chance to collaborate and work alongside other AmeriCorp Vista's in the same role but in different CASA's across New Jersey. All of us have worked so hard and had a real impact on raising awareness, funds and building relationships within the community for CASA statewide. We've helped set social media regulations for our organization, came together on Martin Luther King Day to re-do a Division of Youth & Family Services playroom and continued to meet and communicate on collaborative ideas and best practices for our different CASA locations.

Throughout my year I have been able to re-design one website for the organization www.casaofmonmouth.org and fully design and event website www.voicesforchildrengala.org but have also been able to do so much more! I’ve learned so much and I became fully trained as a CASA Volunteer and currently have my own case where I have the honor of advocating for a group of siblings who need me to be willing to advocate for them. The organization I work for is phenomenal and so necessary to the children we serve.

We all have learned about the struggle CASA faces in raising funds for our mission and awareness about what the organization does. CASA serves a portion of the population that is most vulnerable to become homeless, not graduate high school and stay in the welfare system. These children are also unable to speak up for themselves. CASA not only provides the children we serve with a voice but having a CASA in a child’s life also allows that child to be less likely to experience new abuse, more likely to be adopted, more likely to pass all their classes and less likely to re-enter the child welfare system. Having a CASA in a child’s life means a better chance for a child in foster care to find a safe and permanent home which all children deserve but so many do not have.

It is a struggle to get the community to understand how important the work CASA does. I fully plan on serving another year of service with AmeriCorp and CASA as I’m still working on finishing larger projects that will help raise awareness for our cause and build relationships for both CASA for Children of Monmouth County and hopefully all CASA’s across the state. I don’t think many truly understand the dire importance of the work CASA does or really understand how to get involved. It’s my goal to continue working to change this and get a CASA into the lives of every child in foster care that needs one.