John Coffelt, Editor

Manchester Finance Committee recently invited one of the non-profits that the city made contributions to following their county contribution being cut from this year’s budget to its November meeting.

CASA Coffee County Supervisor Tammy Holt thanked the city for its fiscal contribution and shared a need for additional community volunteers.

“We have a great need in Coffee County for volunteers,” Holt said. “We have enough cases where children are brought into the court system to fill up a full calendar year. We have a lot of dependent neglect and severe abuse cases and that’s Coffee County as a whole.”

Holt said that volunteers spend about 10 hours a month being the “eyes and ears.” 

“It’s a time-consuming program, but it’s also a program that you are giving back to a child in the community,” she said.

Potential volunteers are extensively interviewed, receive 35 hours of training and participate in court date training observations before being sworn in by the judge.

CASA Works, while serving a vital mission, is one of the lesser known of the nonprofit organizations that the city made donations to.  

“I invited her to come,” Finance Chairman Thomas Crosslin said. “I didn’t know a whole lot about what CASA does, and I think we should know more as a community.”

CASA, or Court Appointed Special Advocates, is a nonprofit organization that advocates for children who are brought into the DCS court system — children in foster care or kinship placement with a family member.

“Our vision is that every abused and neglected child that enters the court system has a special advocate,” Holt said. 

Children’s Court Judge Greg Perry will ask CASA to step in to help check on the children to make sure that things are running smoothly.

Holt said CASA volunteers work with the eventual goal of reunifying children with their parents, to be a constant figure in the lives of children who have seen a radical upheaval in their home life.

“These kids may get moved around a lot. They are scared … have a lot of trauma they are dealing with,” she said. “We go wherever the child goes.” 

In some cases, however, advocates cannot recommend permanent reunification. A child may be ready to go back home but, recognizing the best interests of the child and not wanting to place them in a home prematurely, the advocate would document the situation. 

Holt said also that a number of the children in the system come from homeless or under-housed situations.        

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.