Volunteers needed to help abused kids

The Court Appointed Special Advocates program is dealing with an unprecedented shortage of volunteers.

The Travis County system saw a jump of 30 percent from the same time last year, too many children to handle with the current help.

"Last month in July there were 467 children in the system who did not have a CASA volunteer," said CASA executive director Laura Wolf, "which means we needed about 230 CASA volunteers just last month to serve all of those kids."

Wolf said there's no clear reason why demand is so high, but the organization is desperately looking for more good people to start right away.

"Our job is only to get to know the child, get to know their situation," said Wolf, "everything about it so that we can make recommendations back to the judge about what is in that child's best interest."

Everett Carmody has been volunteering with CASA for nearly a year. He called it a rewarding and meaningful experience.

"The impact that you can have on these kiddos' lives, change the direction that they've got, is absolutely amazing," he said.

Carmody said the job of a volunteer is not so much to keep company with children, but to get to know as much as possible about the child's situation, many which have suffered through abuse or neglect.

"You have the great times of taking the kids to McDonalds and all the joyous times," said Carmody. "But really it's not to be a big brother -- if you will -- it's to go out what's best for the kids."

Meanwhile, Wolf hopes their call to action will be heard, the ultimate goal to bring in a couple of hundred new volunteers that will help children through a difficult situation.