Juvenile Court judges, The Honorable Lisa Colbert, The Honorable Thomas Cole, and The Honorable Roxanne Formey will welcome 31 new Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers in an outdoor social distanced celebration on Tuesday, October 6^th at 5:30pm in the Chatham County Juvenile Court (197 Carl Griffin Dr.) parking lot. As a result of the pandemic, all CASA swear-ins have taken place virtually preventing new CASA volunteers from meeting and taking their picture with the three supportive judges.  

Despite the difficulties of COVID-19, Savannah/Chatham CASA has been aggressively recruiting, training, and swearing in community volunteers to reach the goal of serving 100 percent of children in foster care in Chatham County. Training looked different this time around. The volunteers completed 30 hours of fully online training as well as 10 hours of virtual court observation in order to serve as a CASA. All the screen time has made the training especially intense and occasionally frustrating, but the committed group of volunteers handled it with grace and passion.

A CASA volunteer is appointed by a Chatham County Juvenile Court Judge to watch over and advocate for children who have experienced abuse and neglect to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in an inappropriate group or foster home. Volunteers stay with each case until it is closed and the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. By advocating on the child’s behalf, a CASA volunteer amplifies the child’s voice to ensure that their needs, desires, and challenges are heard. For more information, contact Kate Blair at [email protected] or 912.856.1344