Dear Editor

I am writing this letter to encourage your readers to consider being a CASA volunteer. A CASA volunteer is a Court Appointed Special Advocate / Guardian ad Litem who advocates for children who have been found to be neglected and abused by our NH Courts. Being a CASA, we have a very real opportunity to have a positive impact on the lives of these abused and neglected children in NH.

After a career change, my wife and I moved to the North Country from Southern NH where I was a member of a service club for 20 years and felt a need to continue community service. I then started seeing television ads about becoming a CASA volunteer. I looked into it and I said, I can do that. What appealed to me was that the volunteer work that a CASA does has a direct impact on the children you advocate for, which to me was work more meaningful than going to meetings weekly and a few times per year helping with fund raisers to help others. Both are noble and worthy causes however at that point in my life I felt CASA was where I wanted to give my time.

In eight years, I have had the privilege to advocate and speak up for more than 20 children and help with numerous other cases. Advocating for the children includes meeting with the children at least monthly, meeting with their families, teachers, therapists, and others in order to gather the information to advocate for the children’s best interest both in court and at team meetings. This requires between 10 to 15 hours per month per case. Some months more and some months less. Sometimes the work can be stressful however the work is very rewarding.

One of my current cases has seven children from a blended family with two mothers and five fathers. A team was able to keep the children together and reunify them with their step- grandfather who has been the only consistent caring and loving person in their lives. Witnessing the love, the children have for each other and for their grandfather in their home is a reward that money cannot buy.

There is a tremendous need for more CASA volunteers in New Hampshire and I encourage you to look into this opportunity. For more information, or to apply, visit www.casanh.org.

Mark Linehan CASA/GAL

Glen, NH

To The Editor:

For the last 10 years it has been my privilege to act as a voice for abused and neglected children in our state’s court system. As a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer it is my responsibility to meet, at least monthly, with every child that I am assigned, to speak with their relevant service providers, teachers, caregivers etc. and to report to the court what is in the best interest of each child. In all honesty, it is not the easiest volunteer job in the world. However, the rewards when you see a child who now finds himself in a safe and stable home is an incredible, soul satisfying event.

As a CASA volunteer you will be provided both initial and ongoing training, have access to an experienced and knowledgeable staff and get to work with some of the most dedicated professionals in the world including family court judges, state DCYF workers and family law attorneys just to name a few.

I sincerely hope that you will consider joining our ranks and making a difference in the lives of our abused and neglected children. Please go online to www.casanh.org or call (603) 626-4600 to learn more or to fill out an online application.

I look forward to working with you.

Martin J. (Marty) Cloran

CASA Peer Coordinator/ GAL

North Conway, NH

 In the 1970s, I was an x-ray tech in a city hospital. A child was brought in by his mother who claimed he’d injured himself when he fell. His diagnosis of a spiral fracture, a classic sign of abuse, did not match her story. The radiologist, not wanting to “get caught up in the court circus,” declined to report it.

In the 70s, there was no law for mandatory reporting.

Sadly, months later, I x-rayed that boy again. This time he was in the morgue. After doing full body x-rays it was clear that this child’s mother had abused him for years, right up to his death.

It made me sick. It made me sad. It made me feel helpless and hopeless.

I promised that little boy’s spirit that I would find a way to help other kids who are being abused. At the time, I didn’t know how but simply that I would.

In 2005, I saw an ad for CASA on TV and I knew right away that I was finally going to be able to keep my promise to that little boy. I had no legal background so I didn’t know if someone like me could truly make a difference in a courtroom. And I didn’t know if I could find the time in what was already a busy life. But I knew I had to try.

I took the training and accepted my first case the day I graduated. Fourteen years later, I am still making good on the promise I made a long time ago to that little boy.

CASA gave me a voice, which I now give to children who need it most. It truly takes a village to end the cycle of abuse and I hope you will join me in this fight. Would you please make a gift today?

Thank you!

Chris McCarthy
CASA Volunteer Advocate

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In remarks he wrote to share with his mom and the court the day his case closed, Lucas had something he needed his mother Malina to know.

“I never thought you’d be the mom I needed, but now you are.”

They were words that at the onset of his case likely no one expected to hear.

Malina’s youngest son, Mattie, was the first to come to the attention of the court. He was not even a year old and he’d been brought to the hospital more than once suffering from severe respiratory distress due to a medical condition.

Though she’d been taught how to manage his condition and informed of the signs of early respiratory distress, Malina’s addiction to drugs was preventing her from getting her young son the help he needed in an appropriate manner, and Mattie’s dad was incarcerated, so he was placed into foster care with a local family.

Malina’s five older children, including then 15-year-old Lucas, were in the care of her sister who’d taken the children in over the years without the involvement of the child protection system.

From the outset of the case, it was clear. For Mattie to return home Malina would need to get sober, find employment and be able to provide a safe, stable home for herself and Mattie.

She understood the plan, and Mattie’s CASA Margaret believed all along the way Malina wanted to be a mother to her son, but sadly her addiction got in the way. For Malina, like many people dealing with substance misuse disorders, recovery was a rollercoaster.

She got into one program and was kicked out for a positive drug screen. She got into another program and the same happened.

In the meantime, Lucas’ life with his aunt out of state had deteriorated and she’d kicked him out. A petition against Malina was opened in the teenager’s case and he was placed in foster care. Lucas, dealing with his own struggles, was placed in a group home, from which he was removed after just a short time, for failure to follow the rules. He moved into a new program, while a search for a foster placement was conducted. Hesitant to take on the case of an understandably defiant teenage boy, Margaret stepped in as his CASA, now seeking the best supports she could find to help stabilize his life.

While recovering at Cynthia Day Family Center in Nashua, Malina had finally come to a point where she was able to have Mattie live with her for multiple days at a time, while he remained in foster care on the other days. Both Mattie and Malina showed signs of benefiting greatly from the visits. Their bond deepened and Margaret could see that Malina loved her son and that he did well in her care, but she had her concerns about Malina’s ability to stay sober. After a weekend away from the center, Malina tested positive for a drug screen and was kicked out. Though she was able to get into another program and start again, Margaret’s concerns remained the same.

For the next few months, Mattie’s case moved toward termination of parental rights. The foster home he had been in since the beginning was a pre-adoptive home and Margaret was recommending that while Mattie loved his mom and she him, it did not appear Malina could provide the safe, stable home he needed. Her recommendation was that Mattie be adopted. DCYF, she thought, believed the same. But by the time the permanency hearing came around, DCYF’s recommendation had changed to reunification.

Malina, they said, was doing very well in recovery and had been for a couple months.

Margaret maintained her position but ultimately, the court decided to allow the case to move down the path toward reunifying Mattie and Malina.

Over the next period of months, Malina continued to thrive in recovery. After a successful completion of the program she was in, Malina was able to secure an apartment and a job. Lucas, now 17, was the first to return to his mother’s care. Though his struggles continued in school, he started playing basketball for his high school team and his skills drew the interest of a New England college coach.

A couple months later, Mattie left his foster home and moved back with Malina and Lucas. He continues to thrive in the care of his mom, his medical condition is being well-managed and Malina and Mattie continue to have a relationship with the foster family who bonded with him over the two and a half years he was in their care.

Prior to the case closing, with an incredible support system she has built up around her family, Malina was able to welcome her four other children home.

In court on that final day of the case, Malina shared her own words with those who’d been with her through her journey. She thanked the judge, the caseworkers who had Mattie and Lucas’ cases and Margaret for being so hard on her, for without that, she would not have been able to be that mother Lucas told her she finally was for him, and for Mattie.