Louisiana Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children is pushing to attract more African American and male volunteers to diversify its volunteer base.
CASA Louisiana Executive Director Kathleen Stewart Richey says nearly 60 percent of the children who get court-appointed volunteers are minorities, but most of their volunteers are white women.
“Our goal is that the volunteer pool reflects the diversity of the children that we serve so we are targeting for recruitment, African Americans and males.”
Stewart also adds that the average CASA volunteer is either retired, or near retirement, and while they need more young people to join the ranks…
“There is an understandable reason for that. This is a time commitment; the standards require that the volunteer visit the child monthly.”
Stewart says the program needs to have more volunteers, seeing as 7,900 children are in foster care annually, but only 3,600 receive CASA agents.
“By law, the court can appoint a CASA volunteer in every case. However, there are not 7,900 volunteers statewide.”
Stewart made the comments on Talk Louisiana.
