Thrasher Finds Her Calling In Being A CASA Volunteer
By Lauren Zeugner
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — Courtney Thrasher of Warsaw was an elementary school teacher for eight years when she decided to “retire” from teaching and do something else. She eventually went through training to be a Court Appointed Special Advocate, or CASA, volunteer.
“It was important to me to impact a child outside of being a teacher,” she said. She received her first case a few days after receiving her training. “It gave me a whole new sense of empathy,” she said, explaining the situation quickly made her check her bias. “As I was working with this family, I was growing (as a person).”
Thrasher finished her training last year and has worked with just two families so far, but she said one thing she has quickly learned is it’s best for the child to know everyone is on board.
“The Kosciusko County Office of CASA is so supportive,” she said. “When they say call or come in, they mean it.”
Training is done a few hours a week for about a month. “It’s all case-based role-playing,” Thrasher explained. Her experience in the classroom has also helped her with mandated reporting as well as advocating for services a child may need from their school.
There are also team meetings with parents and all the resources working on the case to keep everyone up to speed on where things stand.
Thrasher said when she’s working with a family she spends a couple of hours a week making phone calls, doing visits and doing paperwork, logging what she has done on the case.
Thrasher stressed CASA asks its volunteers if they can take a case on; they are not assigned. “We always have the option to say ‘no,’” she said.
The two cases Thrasher has worked on during the past year involved children who were too young to talk and tell her their feelings about the situation. She said there were pros and cons to those situations, a pro being the child is too young to realize there is a serious problem in their household and a con being the investigative process is a bit more difficult because the child is too young to tell her what is going on.
Thrasher works as an adjunct professor for student teaching at Grace College and Seminary in Winona Lake. She has also written a children’s book and a mystery for adults.
She and her husband, Will, have two children, Walker, 7, and Anniston, 6. She said when she graduated her children were extremely proud of her helping other kids. She also wanted to model helping others to them. “I want them to be altruistic in action,” she said.