THE AUGUST ADVOCATE OF THE MONTH IS:
Catharine James!
Catharine (Cat) James (pictured left with her husband Rob) is an outstanding advocate! She has been an advocate for only four short months but has quickly become one of the most dedicated and passionate advocates on the CASA team!
Cat is the assigned advocate for one child with extensive medical needs. These medical needs have presented challenges in every way possible, but Catharine has gone above and beyond to ensure that all needs are being met. She has been a support to the foster mother straightening out bills, finding a dentist that would see a child with needs such as hers, and locating needed resources. She was also present for the child’s ECI evaluation where Cat used her background in education to help walk the foster mother through the process. Currently, the child in this case is eligible for adoption and looking for her forever home. Cat has been extremely involved in the family finding process and has read multiple home studies over the past few weeks trying to identify the most suitable families to potentially adopt the child.
Outside of advocacy, she has helped with our Amplifying Advocacy conference and Christmas in July BINGO Fundraiser. For our Amplifying Advocacy Conference, Cat oversaw our hospitality room, making sure our presenters were well taken care of and kept their hospitality room stocked with coffee, breakfast, and goodies all day long! For BINGO she donated to the game prizes, donated door prizes, participated in the event and created an art piece with her CASA child that helped raise $500 in the child art auction!
In her time with CASA, Catharine has not missed a meeting, court hearing, court report deadline, or any of the critical contacts each month. She is always willing to come into the office to catch her supervisor up on the case and gives awesome testimony in court. She has her CASA child’s best interest in mind in all things that she does, all while taking advantage of every opportunity she can find to love and serve the CASA program. CASA is blessed to have her and we are grateful for the impact she has already made!
