Court Appointed Special Advocates of Medina County volunteers dedicated more than 150 hours to advocating for children this year

MEDINA — Since its creation last year, volunteers from Court Appointed Special Advocates of Medina County have advocated on behalf of several children in the county. Program Director Erin Grohe provided an update on CASA of Medina County to the commissioners during its meeting Tuesday. A CASA volunteer is an independent investigator who looks into the circumstances in a child's life, Grohe said. "They assess the child's environment," she said. "They collect information for the parents, case workers, teachers and other individuals involved in the child's life. They help identify community resources for both the child and the family, and then they serve as the eyes and ears of the court." Volunteers are tasked with remaining unbiased and reporting all facts to the court, Grohe said. They attend court hearings, go to meetings on the case and make written reports. "They also maintain professionalism, confidentiality and advocate for the child throughout the life of the case," she said. "I think of the CASA volunteers as one consistent adult who's a through-line for the child throughout their entirety of their time in care." However, the volunteers do not take the place of other professionals on the case, provide childcare, placement arrangements or transportation and do not prove innocence or guilt, Grohe said. "We don't actually decide the case outcomes," she said. "Those are things that are ultimately the responsibility of the judge or the magistrate." Medina County has the 48th program in Ohio, and Grohe was hired as program director in July. Since then, 20 volunteers have gone through 30 hours of preliminary, preservice training over the course of five weeks. "I would say a typical training class is about four to five volunteers, so to have 14 in our first training class on Feb. 20 sworn in, and then have six more in our May training class sworn-in is exceptional," she said. "We were actually recognized down at the state when it was CASA Advocacy Day for those numbers being pretty outstanding." So far, CASA of Medina County has been appointed to eight cases, Grohe said. A total of 10 children have been served, since there are two cases involving siblings. "We do have kids from birth," she said. "We have one child who's about 6 months old right now, all the way up to 14, though we can serve children up to 18." The nine volunteers serving the 10 children have completed 154 case hours since the initial appointment on Feb. 27, Grohe said. Volunteers have driven more than 1,000 miles from visiting the children and collecting other information. "In a really small period of time, they put in a lot of great advocacy work for these children," she said. Commissioner Aaron Harrison said the number of volunteers involved in the program shows how Medina County was ready to have something like this. "The hope is that this will defray some of the costs that we have associated with the attorneys who would be doing this work if CASA didn't exist," he said. "You've got a good start." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.