LINGLE – For more than four decades, the Court Appointed Special Advocate group has provided a stable presence and a voice for children who’ve been abused or neglected as they work their way through the courts.

Now, a local woman has come home to bring those services to eastern Wyoming.

Growing up in Torrington, Jennifer Childs and her husband Brian attended high school together. After they married, she began doing development work for the state. Moving to Colorado for six years, she kept working with nonprofits.

“I continued to write grants for nonprofits for free in Wyoming,” she said. “It was my way of contributing back to the state.”

Through that network, Childs worked with an individual who now directs a local CASA program, who informed her the national CASA association wanted to start a CASA network in the state’s nine judicial districts. Childs was asked to get involved. She was offered a position with CASA and could pick any location in the state where she wanted to work. Childs and her husband decided they wanted to move back home. 

Each state CASA group is different.Some are operated by the state while others are organized as not-for-profit groups. The national associationprovides support with marketing and funding.

In Wyoming, local district CASA groups are set up independent of the state organization, Childs said. Wyoming CASA is an independent 501C3 and operates with a governing board of men and women from throughout the state who provide oversight for clients and quality assurance at the local level.

“We also provide technical support, seek pass through funding,” Childs said. “We do everything we can to insure the local programs have everything they need to operate successfully.”

The state organization does not provide the direct services, Childs said. Those come from local programs, including the one she’s working to set up here. There are no programs in the 8th Judicial District, which includes Converse, Niobrara, Plattand Goshen counties. This is one reason Childs chose to come back to this district.

“We push for legislative changes, state funding, anything we can do to help to provide funds as pass through funding to the local programs,” Childs said.

CASA primarily operates with volunteers. Individuals receive about 42 hours of training to become a Childs advocate.

“The volunteers are assigned to a case at the time the child enters into the foster care system, during what is called the shelter hearing,” said Childs. “So, when they enter the system the district court judge then determines if there’s a need to have another set of eyes on a case.”

A CASA volunteer typically is assigned to the worst cases of child abuse and neglect.

The local program handles the child’s case management, with the volunteer remaining with the child from the time they are assigned doing a variety of different things to help the courts and all service agencies involved with the case.

Volunteers are appointed to a “multi-disciplinary team,” Childs said. The team includes guardian ad litem for the child, plus attorneys involved in the case, Department of Family Services, teachers, mental health providers.

The volunteers also do parent interviews and look for possible kinship placement. The ultimate goal is finding a family that will make a good fit with the Childs.

“The volunteer meets with the child regularly. They go into the foster home to insure the child is safe in the state care system as well,” said Childs. “They are a voice for that child victim. We are trying to make sure the child has a voice in the system.”

The state is seeing an increase in sexual abuse cases in along Interstate 80. There is a rise in extreme physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect cases, often associated with drug use.

“With the rise in use of meth in the state, these children come from homes where they never physically hug them, are not being fed or spoken too, locked in their rooms and basements,” Childs said.

The number of so-called extreme cases has increased, from 57 cases in 2007 to more than 161 extreme abuse cases today. This kind of case involves a psychological profile before the child can enter into the foster care system.

Childs said the reason she is here is to make sure the programs that might be operating here are performing at the highest quality.

“We are assuring the children receiving our services are receiving our services to the best of our capabilities,” she said.

The goal is to have a CASA program in each of the state’s judicial districts so every child who needs one will have access to a CASA advocate in the next five years, Childs said.CASA is new to Converse, Niobrara, Platt andGoshen counties with offices in Lingle, headed by Childs.

Childs will be hosting a cornhole tournament for CASA at her home to raise money for this district. There is a $30 registration fee which includes food, drinks and fun on Sept. 8. Call (307) 756 -2892 to RSVP.

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of the name of local organizer Jennifer Childs. Also, the sentence noting district judges are typically assigned to the worst cases of abuse and neglect should have read CASA volunteers are assigned.