Volunteer Spotlight: CASA/LA’s Renne Bilson
February 17, 2021
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Los Angeles pairs adults with children in the child welfare system to act as both a liaison and advocate, and is a longtime partner of The Eisner Foundation as a vital intergenerational program that not only benefits the children they serve, but also provides a deep sense of purpose and satisfaction to the adult volunteers. 35-year CASA veteran Renne Bilson talked with us about her experience and what keeps her coming back. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Tell me about CASA/LA.
CASA/LA is an organization that trains and supports volunteers from the community to advocate and be a voice for children who have been victims of abuse and neglect as they go through the dependency court system. We get to know the child, and we get to know everybody who’s involved with the child, including biological family, foster family, teachers, psychologists, doctors, social workers, and anybody that can provide information to us and to the court that will help the court make better decisions about this child’s life. Once the judge makes orders, we make sure they’re followed and the child gets the services and help that they need. We’re often the one person that really talks to everybody involved with the case. I’ve sometimes described this work as being a hub on a wheel, bringing together information from all those spokes.
How do you build relationships with the children you work with?
My most recent case was a baby, so it wasn’t so much about my relationship with that baby, but it was my relationship with her adoptive parents and all the organizations around that baby to make sure she got all the services she needed. In other situations, getting to know the child can be one of the most important pieces. If they’re young, they’re often instantly responsive to you. When I first meet a child, I usually meet them at their foster home or a relative’s home, wherever they are, and just stay with them for a while. If they’re really young I’ll bring something to engage them like a toy, puzzle or a coloring book. Then I’ll take them out to a park, or to get ice cream, just to relate to them in a different way than all the other people they sit in a room with who are trying to talk to them. The teenagers are often skeptical of another person coming into their lives because they’ve been rejected a lot, or they’ve had people who say they’ll follow through but don’t. One of the most important things with the older kids is just consistency. I never make a promise I can’t keep, but I really try when they ask for something to make it happen. If I can’t, I explain why. Usually after a while, when you keep coming back and you’re there when you say you’re going to be there, they start to trust you. CASA volunteerss stay with a case and with a child no matter how many times they move. Social workers change, attorneys change, therapists change, we’re the one consistent person in their life, and that’s one of the biggest advantages that we offer.
These long-term relationships really benefit the kids. My current case is actually a young woman now, but I’ve followed her from foster homes to group homes to hospitalizations since she was 11 years old. I have the history of what’s gone on in her life, so I can provide that information to all the new people that come into her life. She has a compulsive disorder where she pulls her hair out, and when I first met her it was really bad. For the last 3-4 years she had it under control, but she called me the other day to tell me that she’s doing it again and her group home director didn’t understand it. I was able to explain to the director that’s it’s a psychological condition that should be dealt with through therapy.
How did you learn about CASA/LA?
When I first moved from New York to Los Angeles as a young woman, a mutual friend connected me with an organization that supported a group home here. They had a junior guild and did activities with the teenage girls there. I just fell in love with that work. I contemplated going back to school to get a Master’s in social work, but I had a 7 year old son and my husband traveled a lot. But then, a friend connected to that group home became the founding president of the board when CASA was started in Los Angeles. I couldn’t join the board, but I did become a CASA volunteer. Now, I’ve been doing this work for 35 years. It’s what I was meant to do with my life.
What keeps you coming back?
One thing that makes CASA/LA unique is that we’re part of the decision-making process for these children. When I was volunteering at that group home, I had short-term impact, but no impact at all on what happened to those kids over the long term. When you’re a CASA volunteer you have input into what happens to them as we participate in the court proceedings. Sometimes you can help turn a child’s life 180 degrees and sometimes you can only do smaller things – I can’t make all of their lives great, but I can make them better. I know that no matter how small the impact may be, there’s always an impact. The organization also recruits wonderful people, so I’ve formed a lot of relationships through CASA/LA – other volunteers, social workers, foster parents.
Also, I keep learning. Every case has taught me something – about a medical condition, educational issues, cultural differences. I’m a better person because I’ve been a CASA volunteer, and I’m so happy to have had this opportunity because I’ve lived a pretty sheltered life. This work has expanded my horizons in such a positive way – it gives you a better understanding of other people. I never was intolerant, I don’t think, but it gives you more compassion for what people are going through. I’ve learned how poverty impacts a person’s life, and how the dependency system has expectations of what we want parents to do in order to get their kids back that are difficult. I’ve had conversations with friends who ask “why don’t they just get out of that community?” They don’t understand how impossible that can be. We have to be more empathetic.
How have things changed for you over the 35 years you’ve been a CASA volunteer?
I’m certainly more secure as a person now. I was a little timid early on, but when I started speaking for somebody else, it got easier to do. I’m more assertive and tenacious in getting what my kids need. I look back at some of the cases I had early on, and I see a few situations where I would have spoken out more. One little boy was in a foster home that wasn’t right for him – he had a Latino surname but was English-speaking, and he was placed with a family that primarily spoke Spanish. He was in a vacuum. Today I would have strongly recommended that he be moved to a foster home that was at least bilingual in their daily lives.
What would you tell people who are interested in becoming a CASA volunteer?
What’s spectacular about CASA/LA is that we have young volunteers and older volunteers. Any generation can do this. It’s rewarding at any age. While I almost saw CASA as my full-time job, other volunteers can do this work even if they’re working full-time elsewhere if they have the ability to attend court hearings, etc. Now that a lot of things are more virtual there’s even more flexibility than there was before, and I think a lot of that will continue.
It’s just so satisfying to see a child move in the right direction. I had a little girl who was having such a hard time in school, and was acting out. I learned she did much better in a smaller classroom, and because I had her educational rights, I was able to go to an IEP meeting and advocate for her to be in a special day class. The difference was enormous – not only were her educational needs met, she no longer had behavioral problems. It put her on a different path.
Some people say “isn’t it hard to do what you do?” and sometimes, it is. Sometimes it gets discouraging. But the way I look at it is that if I wasn’t there, this child’s problems would not go away. And even if I’m only able to make a small difference, it’s much better than if I hadn’t been there at all.