What weekend

So, I just finished 20 hours of the required 40 hour CASA training this weekend. It was a lot to cram into only two days and I get to do it all over again next weekend. I also have to go observe the court for three hours on Wednesday. I am well on my way to becoming a social worker, mental health assessor, child development and psychology expert, lawyer, negotiator, intermediary and child advocate!

The first day was a sort of high level overview and a focus on perceptions and bias. Today was much harder. We started at 9am and ended at 6pm, working through lunch and getting a few, 5/10 minute breaks here and there. We had a lot of Franklin County Children Services folks talking to us about how complaints are handled, the process for evaluating the child and family and saw some pretty awful pictures. I would have assumed that folks would've know that would be coming to us at some point, but a few of them really struggled. I don't know how they are going to do when faced with seeing pictures of injuries on a kid that they will have to meet or going to the hospital and seeing the injuries directly. The thing I noticed was that all of the kids were mugging for the camera or in general being silly, even with their injuries they were still being kids. We also spent a lot of time learning about mental illness and child attachment.

Before the class started, 11 people dropped out. Two more didn't show up today and it will be interesting to see who comes back next weekend. It isn't easy and I'm guessing it's going to get worse, but I do feel that it is worth it.