Over Voices for Children's 24 year history, the non-profit community organization has found numerous volunteers that have truly made a difference. However, it was Joanne Foster that they chose to bring to the attention of Volunteer Connection for her many years of dedicated service. For over a decade, Foster has worked with 14 children in 6 cases and is an active member of the Voices for Children Board committee, which is responsible for the organization's annual Light of Hope Luncheon.

Voices for Children works in cooperation with the Boulder County Bar Association to recruit train and supervise volunteers who work as Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs). These CASA volunteers advocate for and provide services to child victims of abuse and neglect. The concept of a CASA, to provide additional information to attorneys for the children in abuse and neglect cases, began as the brainchild of a judge in the Seattle area. Now CASAs span the country but Boulder County CASAs work solely with the Voices for Children organization.

Though Foster seems highly qualified to do work like this, given her background in psychology, she says that CASAs come from all walks of life; from lawyers to those without advanced degrees. "People have to show a level of maturity," she says, "a real interest in kids going to bed at night safe." She believes that to be the right fit for this work, a CASA must love children and take the work very seriously. "This isn't a fly by night type of thing. You have about 40 hours of training and then you have 12 hours per month of commitment."

Though personal reasons have kept Foster from working cases recently, she says she misses it. "The only problem I have is I fall in love with [the kids] and want to take them home with me." She says she gets close to the parents too. CASAs can be involved in the same case for 18 to 24 months. Over the past 11 years Foster says she feels people have respected her input and she feels good about the outcome of the cases that she has had. "We would like to go out of business," she quips sadly, "but I don't think we will."

For information about volunteering with Voices for Children CASA or other agencies, call the Volunteer Connection at 303-444-4904.