John has been a CASA for 5 years, and is our CASA Volunteer of the Month for July 2023! Congratulations John! John recently recounted a story from his first case that touches upon John’s key strengths of perseverance, communication, and relationship-building.

In John’s first case, there were two very different parties that he needed to navigate between, and strict lines of confidentiality that had to be maintained. There were the biological parents, who had challenges with addiction and drugs, and recognized that they were not capable of parenting their child – but they still loved their child and were not willing to relinquish their parental rights until they were comfortable knowing that the family that would potentially adopt their son was OK; and there were the foster parents, who did want to adopt, but were not sure about how to proceed and wanted to make sure they were being cognizant of differences in culture and values.

To navigate this scenario, John drew upon his management experience from the corporate world having previously dealt with privacy in HR matters and confidentiality in contract negotiations, along with his extensive CASA training, to make sure he was not divulging information that he was not supposed to, while at the same time, building relationships.

Through John’s advice and guidance, the foster parents were able to find the right path to give the child a continued relationship with the biological parents, and in time, the biological parents grew to understand and respect that their child was in safe hands living in foster care – through John’s relationship building, the biological parents reached their comfort level, and they relinquished their parental rights so that the child could be adopted – through John’s commitment to the child, the child was able to find a safe, permanent loving home.

Advocacy Supervisor Marian Golan says of John, “He has been able to form relationships with people where nobody else could, not even the Division. He has has gone above and beyond chasing down extended family members to help find a potential home for a child, and he’s a great communicator. He is a wonderful volunteer!”

Thank you John for being a CASA!