Court Appointed Special Advocates of San Benito County Inc

During Fiscal Year 2019/2020, CASA of San Benito County served 34 children with 25 advocates. During this time frame 9 new children were assigned to an advocate. The program experienced a decrease in children referred to the program due to Covid-19 and far fewer reports regarding suspected child abuse and neglect were made to Child Protective Services.The program conducted initial Advocate Training sessions during the fiscal year; 8 trainees participated in the training. Initial training is 33-36 hours and is mandated.Each month the program conducted Continuing Education trainings for advocates. In 2019 many of the trainings were in-person, however starting in March 2020, all trainings were conducted on-line. Some of the training topics included: Educational Advocacy, Domestic Violence, Your Role in FTM and CSOC, Commercially Sexually Exploited Children, Birth to Five basic training, Understanding Poverty.The program continued to recruit, train, support and assign advocates to children in the foster care system even during unprecedented times caused by Covid-19. The agency has 1 program; Advocating for Children in the Foster Care System - in the court room, class room and the community.