Copy
August 2014 at CASA of the Continental Divide  
August 2014
CASACD office changes
The time has come...Lynn, our office manager, has sold her house to move to the front range. We will miss the great work she has done for us in the office but, again, wish her luck in all her future endeavors.
Renie Krummel has started in her place.  Renie worked at 1st Bank for 20+ years and has volunteered with us in our fundraising events.  We are excited to bring a long-time "Friend of CASA" into a staff position!
The email for this position remains: admin@mtncasa.org.
 

Open cases that need CASAs!

Summit County:
  • One female child 15 years old.
Eagle County:
  • Two female children 4 and 2 years old. 
  • Two children, one male 10 yo and female 13 yo.
  • Two female children ages 13 and 2.
  • Two female children 8 and 1 years old.
Clear Creek County:
  • Two females ages 12 and 14.
  • Two boys ages 1 and 5.
Lake County:
  • One male boy age 2

New law affects CASA cases

SB 14-062 will become law as of August 6. In summary, it states that if parental rights are terminated, a 15 year old (or younger if part of a sibling group) can have parental rights reinstated if there is no adoption after 3 years (or less time if it is in the child's best interest and with certain findings made.)  If you have any questions about whether this affects your cases, please call the CASACD office.
 

Optima updates and hints

* COPY & PASTING TEXT INTO OPTIMA TEXT BOXES:

If you need to copy and paste information (text) from other documents or an approved court report into a newly created court report in Optima, it is very important to copy the text in plain text format (txt.)

 

To copy text into any Optima text box from a Word document, for example, it must be in a plain text format. To create a plain text document, first open a Word document. Select FILE and then select SAVE AS; this allows you to rename the document. Rename the document: Plain Text Word Document and then change the FORMAT to: Plain Text (.txt). Lastly, save the Plain Text Word document to your desktop for easy access. 

 

* To complete a new court report, see the Court Report work instructions. Part one is the what goes into the court report. Part two addresses the how to create/data entry a court report in Optima.  
 
These work instructions were mailed to all CASAs. You can also access them on the CASACD website here. Please read these work instructions and document the time you spent reading these work instructions in your training log. The instructions for doing this are also on the same page of the website.

Volunteer Supervision

Colleen:
Summit CASA office room 101:
* Wednesday, August 13 from 10am-12pm  
* Thursday, August 21 from 5pm-7pm

Avon:  Meetings will be held at the Avon Library:
* Thursday Aug 14 from 5pm-7pm
* Wednesday August 27 from 10am-12pm


Hannah:
Dillon CASA office room 101:
Thursday, August 7, from 3-5pm

Leadville Post Office
Wednesday, August 20, from 12-2pm
*If these times don't work for you, contact Hannah for more options! hannaho@mtncasa.org  

If you need access to commonly used CASA forms or templates, use our public file for CASA.  CASA's Dropbox
 

In This Issue

  • CASACD office changes
  • Volunteer Meeting August 6th!
  • Optima updates and hints
  • Upcoming events/trainings/webinars
  • Websites, newsletters and articles of interest
  • Supervision dates

Upcoming events/trainings/webinars

  • Volunteer Meeting - August 6 from 5:30-8:30  CASA Office room 101
    • Resources Information for Our CASA Families
      • Advocates for Victims of Assault
      • Public Health
  • All Families, All Children
    • Develop a greater understanding of the strengths, challenges and value of LGBTQ adults, parents and families, what they can offer a CASA/GAL program, and how to better serve these children in your role as a CASA or GAL volunteer. Facilitated by Tracy Flynn of Tracy Flynn Consulting
    • Youtube Video: 52 minutes Click Here
  • Mitigating Implicit Bias and Disparity in the Juvenile Court System
    • Learn how the court, the data and the CASA/GAL program are working together to identify and mitigate bias and address disparity within their judicial district. This webinar provides positive, practical approaches for CASA/GAL programs and their judicial partners to collaboratively address disproportionality and disparate outcomes for foster youth..
    • Youtube video: 1:24 minutes Click Here
  • New Volunteer Training - September 15 thru October 24
    • This will be our new Flex Training Format!

New Volunteer Training Format

The CASA office is moving with the times and now offering a part online, part in-person training!  Our hope is that this new format will provide more flexibility over the course of training.  We also hope that knowledge retention will improve with this.  We will now meet once a week for 3 hours over the span of 6 weeks.  
Our first "Flexible Training" will begin September 15, 2014.  There will be five trainings following this.  Prospective Volunteers may contact our office to learn more!  

Websites, newsletters and articles of interest

Are children in foster care are abandoned by the system?
Opinion by president of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption reports abandonment of children in foster care by the system.
Read it here on the CNN opinion website.

Permanency for children in foster care: The  Children's Bureau has sponsored an excellent website:
https://www.childwelfare.gov/fostercaremonth/, titled Building Blocks for Permanent Families. Please take some time to review the extensive information on the website that is directed at many different groups, including youth, foster families, caseworkers, advocates, etc.

Foster kids who want to attend college: As we all know, youth aging out of foster care may face many challenges enrolling in college, including accessing accurate information about scholarships, financial aid, and other grants.  The Department of Education created a useful website to assist young people when they are thinking about attending college, located here:http://studentaid.ed.gov/.
 
A one-page resource has been added to the DOE website to inform people about the Education and Training Voucher Program (located here: http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/foster-youth-vouchers.pdf). 

 

Keep Up With Us

Friend on Facebook Facebook
Follow on Twitter Twitter
Copyright © 2014 CASA of the Continental Divide www.mtncasa.org, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
casacd@mtncasa.org
 
 
unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences