Foster care advocate
People ask us, “How can I become an advocate for children in foster care?”
Bergen County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is a non-profit organization that supports and promotes court-appointed volunteer advocacy for children in foster care.
Our children come from towns throughout Bergen County such as Hackensack, Fort Lee, Garfield, Lodi, and beyond. We offer child advocate volunteer opportunities for qualified, responsible, adults.
Many volunteers become a Court Appointed Special Advocate to work directly with children in foster care, while others work behind the scenes in administrative and other support capacities. Email: info@BergenCasa.org to learn more or click the button below to get started on becoming a CASA Child Advocate.
You may ask what a Foster Care Advocate does?
- The Advocate speaks regularly to everyone involved in their appointed child’s life including school teachers and doctors and foster parents and biological parents.
- The Advocate writes a report to the Family Court Judge detailing all the information that has been gathered regarding the child since the last hearing.
- The Advocate attends the Family Court Hearing and will contribute factual information and objective recommendations based on the facts if needed for clarification.
- The Advocate seeks to get services in place for their appointed foster child while they are in care such as mental health services, medical services and educational services.
- The Advocate will provide the child with someone they learn to trust and rely upon especially when everything else in their life keeps changing.
- The Advocate gains the trust and confidence of the child in order to learn and understand the child’s needs.
- The Advocate gains the trust of the biological parent to see if they are doing their services, and if not why not.
- Overall the Advocate wants to determine whether the parent can meet the needs of their particular child.