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New home for CASA broadens program's services
McCOOK, Neb. -- Court ordered supervised visitation between parents and their children is as sorrowful an experience as it is necessary, and when coupled with an inadequate locale it can work against the parenting process, prompting one local official to take action.
Red Willow, Furnas and Hitchcock counties combine for approximately 130 hours of supervised visitation each week. Often times these visits can't take place in the parent's home and end up being coordinated at public libraries, in undersized office spaces, or even at fast food restaurants when weather prevents the use of local parks.
"A visit in a fast food restaurant may not be conducive to good parenting, nor is spending five to six hours in the little office space we were in prior," said Prairie Plains CASA Director Cathy McDowell. McDowell said seeing a family of five kids, a parent, and a parenting liaison confined to the approximate 15 ft. by 12 ft. room CASA previously called home motivated her to seek out a larger space and eventually brought about the idea of expanding services as well.
McDowell didn't have to look far for a new home and moved the McCook CASA office in early October to its new home across the hall. Staying within the Temple Building on Norris Avenue made for an easy relocation of existing office equipment and the larger space will eventually provide a unique setting McDowell believes will have a positive influence on the supervised visitation process.
Renovations are underway to the additional space and CASA's new base of operations intends to replicate home life, offering parents the ability to cook a meal, catch up on laundry or simply play a board game with their children in a comfortable environment.
McDowell said inadequate environments, aside from the obvious lack of space and privacy, can also set an unrealistic expectation for the children given the nature of the focused attention received by parents at the time. Confined to a barren room for an extended period of time with nothing but the attention of a parent, children are forced to adjust to the intense level of attention received and then again when it's taken away at the end of the visit, according to McDowell.
CASA's new location will provide an apartment setting with a full kitchen, washer and dryer and a bedroom to accommodate naps for younger children. A family room will provide additional options for interaction and give school aged kids a space to work on homework.
McDowell has also designed the layout of the rooms with consideration for the supervised visitation setting, providing an area for advocates monitoring the interaction to do so from a vantage point comfortable for everyone involved.
McDowell said it is not uncommon for CASA volunteers to return from supervised visits and express both shock and disappointment pertaining to the location, a situation she hopes CASA will soon be able to assist with.
Supervised visitations aren't the only area McDowell intends to improve upon locally either.
"We also hope to focus on kids aging out of the foster care system who don't have the life skills to start living on their own," said McDowell. Foster kids typically begin their adult life without a lifeline, in the form of parent, someone to call when times get tough or difficult decisions present themselves she explained.
"We want to help prepare them for individual living, life on their own," said McDowell.
The idea is to provide classes or sessions, free of charge, on a variety of topics ranging from meal planning to basic car maintenance.
"How to interview for a job, fill out an application, read a lease agreement, all that stuff grown up people do," said McDowell.
CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates for children, relies heavily on the support of trained volunteers for the role they play advocating for children within the court system. The additional services designed to assist area foster kids will similarly rely heavily on a pool of local volunteers versed on the subject matter provided. McDowell listed basic cooking, meal planning, interviewing for a job, filling out an application and reading a lease agreement as just a few of the many topics she believes local experts can provide valuable tutoring on.
"It's not just court system kids either, any kid that might have a need," said McDowell.
Face-to-face classes taught by area professionals might also help foster an invaluable connection between area youth and the community itself, a connection McDowell thinks could reduce the number of those choosing to relocate to other communities. Young adults who attend a class taught by a local mechanic on basic car maintenance or by a Gazette employee on how to work in the newspaper industry will likely gain additional confidence related to applying for a job within those fields, or even better, develop a contact person they are comfortable reaching out to should questions arise, explained McDowell.
"It could really help create a sense of belonging in the community," she said.
Cathy McDowell took over as Director of Prairie Plains CASA in 2008 and has worked diligently to increase grant and donation support to the point it could afford the additional office space and begin working towards providing additional services. McDowell is largely responsible for the creation and success of the program's largest fund raising event, the annual CASA Disc Golf Tournament at Kelley Park.
Two rooms within CASA's new space will be dedicated in honor of Matthew Weimers and in appreciation of the support received from the Weimers family. Several local businesses have already donated furniture for use at the location, including a conference table from Purple Moon Cookery and conference chairs from First Central Bank.
McDowell said she is in the process of finalizing donations of an oven, as well as a washer and dryer, and anticipates the only need for the new facility to be a refrigerator and a vacuum cleaner.
For donation or CASA volunteer information, McDowell can be reached at catherinemmcdowell@q.com or by calling 340-6832.