Politics & Government

Harford Gets 13 New Court Appointed Child Advocates

A group of the Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASAs, is scheduled to be sworn in next week.

 

Harford County is about to have 13 more trained volunteers to advocate for the interests of abused and neglected children in the court system.

The local group will be sworn in as Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASAs, having completed 30 hours of classroom training and at least two hours of court observation, according to a release from CASA.

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Volunteers are assigned to the case of a child within the juvenile court system who is ruled in need, based on past abuse or neglect, according to the CASA of Harford website.

They advocate for the best interests of these children in the judicial, educational, medical, and social service systems, the release states.

Find out what's happening in Bel Airwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Children are so vulnerable in our society and so easily pushed aside,” Mary Allan, a systems engineer and mother who is among the freshly trained group, said in the release. “I want to show them that what they’ve lived with isn’t necessarily all they can expect, especially when it comes to trusting other adults to look out for them.”

Last year, CASA of Harford provided an advocate for 88 children, the release states.

The new group consists of Rhonda Hazelten, Helene Breslin, Andrea Countryman, Linda Williams Mary C. Allan, Diane Flanders and Beverly Fletcher, all of Bel Air; Marion Green of Joppa; Shen Wood of Nottingham; Danielle Mullin of Forest Hill; Stacey Ausfresser of Abingdon, and Carrie Thompson and Salwa Kahn of Havre de Grace.

Judge William O. Carr is scheduled to swear them in at the at noon on May 16.

Interested in volunteering yourself? Find out what's involved and apply here.


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