National CASA Podcast

One goal of CASA/GAL advocates is to ensure that the youth they serve visit with their biological parents. When their parents are incarcerated, this task is tricky-but certainly not impossible. In this podcast two woman who work on Project Family Connect describe the importance of the parent/child connection while discussing how advocates may overcome obstacles to facilitating meetings between children and incarcerated parents.

In this podcast, Lisa Barsky Firsker Phd., Executive Director from Morris and Sussex Counties, discusses how to work with children who are dealing with the death of a family member or other significant loss in their lives. Firsker describes services children may need and shares tips for volunteers about what they should expect from grieving children and how they can work through their own grief.

In this podcast, Suzanne Greenberg, president/CEO of CAN Council Saginaw County and member of the National CASA Board of Trustees, shares how her passion for the CASA mission inspires her efforts as a board member.

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)-the most common legal status available to immigrant youth-is an important consideration in a growing number of our network's cases. In this podcast, Susan Schmidt, a consultant for Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services, discusses why it is important for our volunteer advocates to be familiar with SIJS and the issues immigrant family members might encounter when adjusting to their new country. This is part two of a two-part podcast.

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)-the most common lawful status available to immigrant youth-is an important consideration in a growing amount of our network's cases. In this podcast, Susan Schmidt, a consultant for Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services, provides an introduction to SIJS. This is part one of a two-part podcast.

Lisa Barsky Firsker, PhD explains how the use of simple materials such as crayons, paper, colored pencils and markers can be a powerful way to communicate with a child. As she says: "Inside every quiet child there is a loud voice trying to get out."

This podcast features National CASA Association Kappa Alpha Theta Program Director of the Year Melissa Protzek of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania.

This is the second story teller from the 2010 National CASA Conference closing general session. It is a live recording of Dee Horn from Fulton County CASA, Georgia. In this podcast Dee shares his story about his volunteer advocacy work.

At the 2010 National CASA Conference we asked four volunteer advocates from our network to share a story at our closing general session about their volunteer work. This podcast is a live recording of our first story teller Leana Lowery, a volunteer advocate from Fulton County CASA, Georgia.

At our 2010 National CASA Conference, we invited volunteers, staff, supporters and others to share their CASA/GAL stories in a story booth.  In this week's podcast, we present the first edited interview: a conversation between a youth who recently emancipated from the foster care system and a youth currently in state care.