Pat Mikel was named the CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer of the Month for October 2015! She has been a CASA volunteer since October 2010 and has advocated for 14 children!
Most of the time in Marshall County, CASA Volunteers take on one case at a time with a case being a family. However, on two separate occasions, Pat stepped up to take on a second case! In 2013, the caseload in Marshall County was so high that all of the available volunteers were assigned to cases and Pat agreed to take on a second one as her case was winding down even though she was in the process of moving back to Kosciusko County and it would mean quite a drive and time commitment for her! On the second occurrence, Pat agreed to take a case with kids who were placed with relatives in Kosciusko County even though she already had another case at the time. Pat chose to continue volunteering in Marshall County after moving because she has a heart for kids and she retired as a teacher from the Wawasee School district. After her husband retired from the Bremen school district, they moved back to Kosciusko County where they originated from in order to be closer to family…but Pat still advocates for children in our county and we are so thankful she does!
CASA of Marshall County is a nonprofit organization that exists nationally, at a state level and in 77 of Indiana’s 92 counties. Every county has a different organizational structure and sometimes a different name but the overall mission is the same: to advocate for children who have been identified as abused/neglected by the family court system and to speak for their best interests.
CASA of Marshall County recruits, trains and supervises volunteers from the community. Currently there are approximately 40 volunteers although not all of them are able to take cases at the same time. Last year, CASA advocated for 76 cases. Due to an unusually low number of Child in Need of Services (CHINS) cases, CASA did not train any new volunteers in 2015 but they are planning a training class for February of 2016. If you are interested in learning more about CASA, please contact Haley Kittrell at haleyk@co.marshall.in.us or visit their website atwww.marshallcountycasa.org!
