photo provided by CASA of Berks County
Pictured (from left to right): Lisa Unrath, Executive Director of CASA of Berks County; newly sworn CASA volunteers Debra Kleinschmidt, Stacey Messing, Donna Garges, Terri Stallone, Christine Ahrens, Janine Torres, Cherrie Sage, Ashley Brennan, and Toni Stevens; and CASA Volunteer Manager Christa Yeager.
It’s a difficult subject to discuss but one that cannot be ignored — abuse and neglect perpetrated upon those who have no means to speak for themselves: children.
According to AdoptPAKids.org, the Commonwealth’s statewide foster and adoption network, there are between 13,000 and 15,000 children in Pennsylvania’s “resource family” (foster care) system.
Berks County is home to more than 600 of those children. And more than 70 percent of them need someone to advocate for them as their cases wind their way through the Berks family court system.
Those voices come from CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) volunteers of Berks County.
The Unrest of Unrath
Native Berks Countian Lisa Unrath, MEdL (Masters in Educational Leadership), enthusiastically accepted the position of Executive Director for CASA of Berks County almost six months ago.
Unrath, who spent her professional career in both the Reading and Philadelphia school districts, “retired” and came home to Berks. Her parents — dad was a steelworker and mom a garment worker — were active in Reading politics and volunteer activities, including working with children and helping those less fortunate.
“My parents taught me, ‘If you've got it but don't need it, you can give to someone who does.’ That has guided me through my life,” says Unrath.
So as Unrath grew restless in retirement, she searched for a second career that would be a meaningful way to live out the principles honed by her parents. CASA was a perfect fit for her.
CASA Came Calling
“I knew I was destined for this [career change],” says Unrath. “The ‘aha!’ moment came a few years earlier when working with a frustrated parent in the Philadelphia School District. The parent’s child was willfully disobeying orders and skipping school, and the parent was frustrated with the system.”
“She said, ‘I can’t make my kid come to school, because if I do anything, he will call DHS [Department of Human Services] and report me! And I will lose him.’” Unrath called DHS herself, and together with the District and Parent Association they instituted parenting classes to help parents keep their children out of the system.
The CASA Mission
CASA aims to provide a competent, responsible and compassionate court-appointed community volunteer to advocate for each child who faces abuse, neglect, and/or abandonment; the nonprofit’s goal is to restore their well-being and ensure the eminent right to a safe, nurturing and permanent home.
The Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) becomes the voice and support for the child in legal, educational and other matters. These volunteers are rigorously trained and sworn in by a Berks County judge, and then are eligible to be assigned a case.
One of the first CASA cases in Berks involved a sibling group of five in 2016. When the CASA volunteer met the children, she was concerned about the lack of educational and physical progress for the oldest child, a girl. Through personal experience, the volunteer suspected the child was on the autism spectrum.
As her advocate, the CASA volunteer was able get the child medical and psychological services. “Without this amazing volunteer,” says Unrath, “that child would probably not get the services she needs and would not be doing as well as she is now.”
Anecdotes such as these, says Unrath, are being heard over and over again as the program grows. “My job is to leave the world a better place than how I found it,” says Unrath.
And as the director of Berks’ CASA organization, there is no doubt that she will fulfill her job requirements.
For more info, contact Volunteer Manager Christa Yeager at Christa@CASABerks.org or call 484.509.4206. CASA is also on Facebook@casaberks and can be contacted via Messenger.
