november2006

The Voice

Colonial CASA's E-Newsletter

Volume I, Issue 11

November, 2006

Each month, when I sit down at my computer to write The Voice, I am overcome with excitement -- we have so many important things to announce and report! You all continue to inspire us to work hard in supporting the Advocates who give voice to our community's children.

In This Issue...

Pencil It In...
From Rebecca's Desk
From Sarah's Desk
Colonial CASA Welcomes 5 New Volunteers
National CASA Surveys Volunteers
Colonial CASA Coffee Talk
CASA Volunteers Receive New ID Badges
Helpful Program Update: How to Add Lines to MMRs
Colonial CASA's Wishlist
Quick Links

Pencil It In...

Nov. 23: Annual Campaign Begins
Nov. 23-24: Office Closed, Holiday
Dec. 4-14: Volunteer Evaluations
Dec. 11: Monthly Meeting, 11:30am
Dec. TBA: CASA Holiday Party
Dec. 22-26: Office Closed, Holiday
Jan. 8: Monthly Meeting, 11:30am

To Access Colonial CASA's Calendar, Click Here.

From Rebecca's Desk

Greetings from upstairs! Another busy month up in the Director’s office...STILL getting to know folks, organizing our Annual Fund drive, finishing training, and pursuing new grant opportunities. I am so pleased to announce that we have a new class of CASAs! Our updated training model came together beautifully (thanks Barbara) and we will have 5 new Advocates as soon as the Judge can swear them in. They are ready and eager to get going!

Also exciting, the Williamsburg Health Foundation has awarded Colonial CASA $18,990.00 to update our aging technology systems in the office. We are purchasing a new server and computer equipment through our long-time supporter and donor J.K. Technologies, and upgrading our telephone systems through a new friend, Duke Technologies. We are about to become technologically current! Now, if only I could keep up...

I have been so happy to see those of you who have stopped by to introduce yourselves and welcome me aboard. I have so enjoyed getting to know Colonial CASA’s Advocates, other volunteers, and community partners. Please stop by any time - my door is always open!

~Rebecca Bresee, Executive Director

From Sarah's Desk

Several years ago, I supervised a volunteer who took it upon himself to add a section to his court report titled “Compliance”. In this section, he listed the conditions of the Protective Order and addressed whether each condition had been completed or was in the process of being completed and what the estimated completion date was. Although, this was an adjustment to our CASA Report format, I left it in as he, obviously, felt it was important to provide this information in this “reader friendly” mode.

This volunteer has, sadly, relocated to the Windy City and is no longer with the program; however, he paid me a surprise visit several weeks ago, which prompted memories of his modification to his CASA Report. The more I considered it, the more useful I thought it to be. So for the first time in 10 years, we are going to make a revision to the CASA Report Format and add the Compliance section. The reasoning for this is twofold: (1) it allows the reader to view the parent’s progress at a glance; (2) and it is information that the CASA Office now must track for grant reporting. As far as placement in the CASA Report, the Compliance section will come before the Assessment section. This will go into effect on January 1, 2007.

As Judge Fairbanks said to our new group of volunteers, CASA volunteers consistently provide him grade “A” college-level papers. I think he would give this addition to the CASA Report an “A+”!!!

~Sarah Serra, Volunteer Coordinator

Colonial CASA Welcomes 5 New Volunteers

CASA volunteers are the foundation of this organization -- their hard work and enthusiasm are contagious! During the month of October, 5 members of this community, dedicated over 40 hours of their time to learn the necessary skills to become a voice for abused and neglected children. And, in the meantime, I think they had a little bit of fun!

Colonial CASA is pleased to welcome its 5 newest additions featured here with Judge Fairbanks: Diane Forse, Victoria Canady, and Rich Moser. Unfortunately, Roopa Singh and Rodney Parker are not pictured.

National CASA Surveys Volunteers

Recently, we received an email from National CASA that we thought had particular importance to our CASA volunteers. National CASA maintains great communication with the local programs and is consistently a great resource, funneling information and tools to further advocacy. Read the email from National CASA below:

As part of National CASA's strategic plan, we see great potential in drawing together our 50,000+ CASA/GAL volunteers across the country through a new virtual "volunteer community." The goals are to connect advocates with nationwide resources, tools and information as well as with other volunteers via a new website. Our intention is that the volunteer community website will benefit every local CASA program by supporting your recruitment and retention efforts. Add to that the potential for mobilizing volunteers around public policy issues and national events such as our response following Hurricane Katrina. To date, we have conducted two focus groups with volunteers as well as a roundtable and teleconference with state directors to help us understand their needs.

In October, we invited staff of CASA programs to provide feedback on this project by completing an online survey. Now we want to hear from CASA volunteers. This brief online survey will only take about 10 minutes of your time to complete. As an incentive to participate, volunteers will be entered into a drawing with five chances to win a $50 gift certificate to ShopCASA.

Complete the Survey

Colonial CASA Coffee Talk

Mike Myers SNL Image Do you remember the Saturday Night Live Sketch Coffee Talk where Mike Myers portrayed his mother-in-law? Well, some of the Colonial CASA volunteers had a similar idea...

Well, maybe the only thing in common would be the name. But, I have heard from numerous volunteers a need to socialize, and occasionally discuss their cases and the inherent stresses of them with one another. So, the idea of Colonial CASA's Coffee Talk was born. It would be a group of CASA volunteers who would get together informally to socialize, golf, etc. outside of the courtroom and/or CASA office.

If you are interested in joining the group, let me know (either email or call me, 757-229-3306) and I will set up a list serve for the club to "talk amongst yourselves!"

CASA Volunteers Receive New ID Badges

Passport Clipart Colonial CASA is happy to announce that each of its Advocates is now carrying an updated ID badge. Recently, our Intern from the College of William and Mary, Alice Curtin, updated all of the Advocates' ID badges. After learning that some volunteers had ID badges with the old address on them, we decided to put expiration dates on all ID badges and renew them annually.

If you did not receive your ID badge in the mail, please contact Alice directly by email or 757-229-3306.

Some of you have had the great fortune of meeting Alice when she has been in the office. She is an American Studies major at the College and learned of CASA through her involvement with Kappa Alpha Theta. She believes strongly in the CASA mission and we are lucky to have her!

Helpful Program Update: How to Add Lines to MMRs

Colonial CASA Logo As you all know, the staff at Colonial CASA work tirelessly to serve the Volunteers serving the children of this community. We are always open to suggestions of how to better serve those Volunteers and/or improve the program. Recently, we have learned that many Volunteers have difficulty with adding lines to the MMR document when completing it -- a favorite task itself! Below are some basic instructions on how to add rows to Microsoft tables, the format of the MMR.

TO ADD ADDITIONAL ROWS TO YOUR MMR TEMPLATE:

Open the MMR Template document from either your CASA disk or your computer.
Click on the last row in the case contact table.
Double Click (left click) on the Table drop-down menu at the top of Microsoft Word.
Click on Insert and select the Rows Below option.
Now you have successfully inserted an additional row to your MMR report!

If you have additional questions, do not hesitate to contact your supervisor, 757-229-3306.

Colonial CASA's Wish List

Clip Art: Wish

Wow! Who knew that the old adage "you won't know unless you ask" is actually true? Colonial CASA would like to thank all of the supporters who have generously donated items from our wishlist to the office...we are incredibly grateful!