As the community gears up for school, Child Advocates is getting ready to start a new training class that begins August 18 th.

"Just in June and July we have received 14 new cases that are not currently being served by a volunteer," says Emily Streeton, Executive Director of Child Advocates. "We need more volunteers to help us serve these children to the best of our ability." Child Advocates is a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower volunteers to be the voice in court for abused and neglected children.

Once the 30-hour training class is complete, volunteers are sworn in by a Wichita County Judge and become Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). Each CASA is then assigned to a child abuse case that has been assigned to Child Advocates by the court, as well as a staff case-supervisor.

Once assigned to a case, CASA's develop a relationship with the child, or children, as well as all of the parties involved in the case. CASA's work to ensure that the child(ren)'s best interest is being represented and that they are placed in a safe and stable environment as quickly as possible.

The August training class runs from August 18 - September 8 and will be held on Monday, Wednesday evenings from 5:30pm - 8:30pm and on Saturdays from 8:30am - 2:30pm. Training is free and dinner or lunch is provided. To sign up or to find out more about Child Advocates, call 940-766-0552 or visit their website at www.casawf.org.