Fair 46° F

Home > Archive > Feb 14, 2008

A 'Special Advocate' for St. George Kids
By Cami Cox
Staff Writer
Advocating for children is a number-one priority for Glorya Garcia Schow.
“CASA is the first priority in my life,” she said. “When a child needs intervention, they need it that day.”
A volunteer for Court Appointed Special Advocates, Schow has been working on behalf of Southern Utah's children for the past seven years.
“She has helped literally hundreds of children,” said CASA coordinator Charlotte Pace. “She's one who has the very rare ability to establish an immediate rapport with a child.”
CASA is a nationwide program that uses trained community volunteers to speak and act on behalf of neglected or abused children within the court system. In addition to being “the eyes and ears,” Pace said, of the guardian ad litem, or the attorney appointed to act on behalf of minor children, CASA volunteers also sometimes spend time with the children they're assigned to in a sort of mentorship role. They regularly observe conditions in the child's home, as well, reporting back to the guardian ad litem and making recommendations as to what should be done for the child.
“This person kind of visits the child in lieu of the guardian ad litem,” Pace said.
There are currently two guardians ad litem for the St. George area, she said, and with hundreds of ongoing, open court cases involving local children, two attorneys couldn't possibly visit or keep tabs on every child. That's where CASA comes in.
“You know how everybody has an attorney when they go to court? Well, that's what the CASA does. They visit with the child as if they were the attorney, and they look out for things,” said assistant CASA tech Mary Barnes.
Volunteer Schow is just one of the many local CASA workers striving to ensure the safety and well-being of children in the St. George area, but she is “a marvelous volunteer,” Pace said.
Like the other CASA volunteers, Schow attends court hearings and DCFS meetings with or on behalf of the children she works with, as well as conducting home visits and staying in contact with therapists, caseworkers and everyone else involved with the child's case. She also gives extra time and attention to individual kids when it's needed, in a sort of temporary motherly role, doing such things as  making gingerbread houses with the children, taking them out for ice cream and having manicure and pedicure sessions with the young girls. This aspect of CASA volunteering is to provide a stable, constant influence for the kids, so they have someone to talk to and rely on while court proceedings take place and their familial issues are sorted out.
In addition to acting as a CASA volunteer, Schow also does crisis intervention, visiting and interviewing local kids when suspected abuse or neglect has been reported.
“Oftentimes, for example, she'll be sent into a school to meet a child for the first time,” Pace said. “They pull the child out of class so that she can speak to the child in private about what's going on. Just time and time again, children are able to open up to her, because they, right away, feel that rapport and the trust. She just has unique qualities that lend themselves very well to the mission of our program.”
And part of that mission, Barnes said, is to not only give kids a constant person they can count on throughout their ordeals, but to also ensure that their needs are being communicated and addressed in court.
“What (our mission statement) says, in effect, is that a CASA walks in the shoes of the child and relays their wishes and their needs – to combine with the guardian ad litem – to the court, so the judge can make accurate decisions about whether or not a child should be left in the home that has previously been neglectful to him, or whether they have to remove the child,” Barnes said.
For her outstanding efforts in doing this work on behalf of local children, Schow was given the highest honor available to CASA volunteers in the state of Utah in 2006 – the Jennifer Jayne Memorial CASA Bear Award.
The award was created for Jennifer Jayne, a CASA volunteer in northern Utah who was killed in an auto accident while traveling home from a CASA training. The award recognizes excellence and above-and-beyond efforts of Utah's CASA volunteers, and Schow was well deserving of the honor, Pace said.
“She's just terrific, just a wonderful lady,” she said.
A professional nurse with a master's degree in health education and educational psychology, Schow's training and experience have made her well suited for the job of CASA volunteer, but such a background is not necessary to being an effective CASA worker, she said.
“All we ask is that you be interested in being an advocate for a child. The reward is the personal satisfaction that you get in knowing you have made a difference in the life of a child,” Schow said. “We need people of both genders – men and women, and all ages.”
There is a great need for volunteers in the CASA program, Pace said, especially as Washington County continues to grow.
To volunteer, one must be 21 or older, pass a criminal background check and complete mandatory CASA training. The time commitment is around 10-12 hours a month.
For more information about CASA or to become a volunteer, call (435) 986-5725. Additional information about CASA programs nationwide can also be accessed online at www.nationalcasa.org.

---