Story of Hope: Karyn
August Advocate Impact Story
Written By: Karyn's Advocate Supervisor
I would like to recognize my amazing advocate, Karyn Valencia. She has been a CASA volunteer for over 2 years now and has been assigned to a five-child-case since April of 2019. The kids range in age from three to nine years old. Throughout the case, the children moved placements five times, until they were placed with their maternal great aunt. The parents’ rights were terminated in January 2020, and all of the children developed behavioral issues due to their traumatic history, but Karyn was still able to impact their lives and played an integral part in helping these kids find stability.
During the months after termination, their great aunt started to have a challenging time looking over the kids, especially with the oldest child’s behavioral outbursts and a developed eating disorder. She eventually told CPS that she could no longer care for the children. When Karyn heard that the great aunt had given notice, she immediately called her to try and help in any way she could to avoid this placement breakdown. The children had already been moved so many times, Karyn wanted to do everything she could to prevent that from happening again. She set up a time to talk more with the great aunt, and allowed her to express her frustrations about what she was experiencing with the children.
After hearing her concerns, Karyn assured her that they could get the oldest child the proper services to address her issues while still caring for the younger children in her home. After also learning that the therapist the oldest child was seeing wasn’t helping her trauma, Karyn immediately researched different therapists who had more specialized training with the issues the child was dealing with.
After the great aunt spoke to Karyn, she called CPS to let them know she had changed her mind, but the process to find the children another home had already begun. The great aunt was devastated and regretted that she had expressed her desire to give up being the children’s caregiver.
"When Karyn heard that the great aunt had given notice, she immediately called her to try and help in any way she could to avoid this placement breakdown."
When Karyn was told that it was too late for the great aunt to change her mind about taking care of the children, she contacted the children’s attorney and set up a meeting to discuss their options. Luckily, there was a placement review hearing set the following week and Karyn was able to express her concerns and recommendations through her CASA report. She prepared a detailed and well-written court report expressing why she did not feel it was in the children’s best interest to remove the children and place them back in a shelter, yet again. The judge referenced the CASA report multiple times throughout the hearing and ultimately ordered that the placement remain the same for the younger siblings and that a specialized placement be identified for the oldest. Because of Karyn’s excellent advocacy for the best interests of her CASA children that she detailed in her CASA court report, these children avoided yet another placement breakdown.
After the placement review hearing, I was looking through her monthly contact logs in our Optima system, and came upon a log entry she had created. It read, “Ordered Pizza Hut for the kids”, a simple gesture that I know meant a great deal to the great aunt and the children as well. Karyn continues to make impacts for her CASA children, despite not being able to visit with them face-to-face at this time.
Thank you, Karyn, for all you do for your sweet CASA children.
Help us provide more Advocates like Karyn who are willing to go above and beyond even in the midst of crisis to provide a voice for children in foster care.
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