Meet Our CASA Volunteer: Teresa Smiley
Teresa discusses below reasons for becoming a CASA Volunteer and what motivates her as a CASA Volunteer.
Why did you decide to become a CASA? I had known friends who were CASA’s for several years, but wasn’t able to volunteer myself because of extensive work travel. Once I retired I was super excited to be accepted into the CASA training program in June 2017.
What do you like best about being a CASA? The best part of being a CASA are the moments when you “connect” with your kids. It doesn’t happen every moment of every visit but when you do connect it is so heartwarming. By “connect” I mean the times that one of the girls will reference a comment or suggestion I made to them earlier, or when they ask my opinion, or when they will tell me they are glad I’m there for a visit.
How many CASA cases have you had? I was assigned my first CASA case in July 2017 am a CASA for two teenage sisters.
Tell us one of your most meaningful experiences as a CASA. One of my CASA girls suffers from social anxiety and our first few visits were challenging as we worked to establish a relationship and to be able to effectively trust and communicate with each other. Several months into our case she was relaxed enough to tease me about my choice of radio stations when we were on a road trip to see her sister. It doesn’t sound like much when I try to put this into words, but it was a pretty major breakthrough when I think about where we started.
What has being a CASA taught you? Being a CASA has been tremendously rewarding on one hand, but it has had its challenges/frustrations on the other. It has underscored for me just how fortunate I have been to have loving parents and terrific role models and mentors throughout my life. It has also been an eye-opener in terms of how the social services and court systems operate – it’s not always easy to understand how some decisions are made and the pace of progress with my case seems slow. But being a CASA isn’t about me and my frustrations with the system – it’s about trying my best to understand the process and how to best support my CASA girls as their cases work their way through the system.
What keeps you motivated as a CASA? The special respondent (and current guardian) for one of my CASA girls commented to me once that “what these girls really need is consistency in their lives” – they have had so many different therapists and placements and counselors and to top it off they can’t count on their parents. She underscored for me how important my role as a CASA is – in terms of being a consistent advocate and source of love and support for these girls.
