Episode 172: How CASA Volunteers Are Changing Foster Care | Regan Phillips & Nancy Eaton | CASA of Orange County
The foster care system is overloaded. CASA of Orange County is doing something about it. Kara talks with Regan Phillips, CEO of CASA OC, and longtime volunteer Nancy Eaton about the role of Court Appointed Special Advocates and why every child in the system deserves one. They break down the realities of foster care, what most people get wrong about reunification, and the difference a single adult can make. Nancy shares what she’s learned from mentoring teens through the system, and Regan explains how CASA is changing outcomes one child at a time.
“The epidemic of children in the foster care system is not widely known because they’re private, they’re in closed court. Most people don’t realize the gravity or frequency of children in the foster care system. ”
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Chapters
00:00 What is CASA and why it matters
02:15 Meet Regan and Nancy
04:30 The scope of the foster care crisis
06:45 How California became the biggest foster care state
09:00 What CASA volunteers actually do
11:30 Reunification myths and hard truths
14:00 Mentoring teens through trauma
16:30 Why graduation rates change with CASA
18:45 Boundaries and emotional resilience for volunteers
21:00 A real-life CASA story
23:15 Advocacy, dignity, and trust
26:00 What training looks like
28:30 Getting started as a CASA
30:15 Why women are leading this work
Across the country, there are over 400,000 children in the foster care system and California has the highest number of children. Of all the states, we've got over 70,000. And in Orange County we are up 10% through the pandemic. Then three pandemic numbers. 3,450 is right where we're hovering these
days.
That's Reagan Phillips, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Hey guys, I'm Kara Duffy, a business coach and entrepreneur on a mission to help you live your most extraordinary life. By showing you anything is possible. People who have mastered freedom, ease, and success, who are living their best and most ridiculous lives, and who are changing the world are often people you've never heard of until now.
It's shocking how many children are in foster care in the United States. Even more shocking are the statistics of how many children in foster care graduate from high school end up in jail or worse. That's why I'm so thankful that organizations working to save children from those statistics such as Casa exist.
Today's guests are Reagan, Phillips, CEO of Casa, orange County, and Nancy Eden, a local CASA advocate and fundraiser. Get ready to learn what's really happening in foster care, how we can save those children, and how incredible the women who are doing the work really are.
I am so honored to have you guys here today. This, what we're gonna talk about today is a topic that I care about. I have questions about, I know how much it matters to you guys, and I can't wait for the audience to hear about it. So I have so many questions and things I wanna say, but let's jump in first by, please introduce yourself, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
And since Nancy's been a guest before, I'm gonna ask Reagan for you to start.
Okay. Very very nice. I wasn't aware that Nancy had previously been a guest. That's very exciting. My name is Reagan Phillips. I am. In terms of where I am in the world, I'm coming to from Santa Ana, California right near where our headquarters are located.
I'm at home currently, but I don't live far from our office. I am the CEO for CASA of Orange County. CASA stands for Court appointed Special Advocates, and ours is a nonprofit that is empowered by the juvenile court to create wonderful, meaningful connections between amazingly big hearted volunteers in our community and children that are in the foster care system.
And Nancy is one of those amazing volunteers. Yeah. And Nancy,
please tell everyone about you, your name, where you are, what you're up to.
Hi Kara. Thank you for having us on today. Really appreciate that. My name is Nancy Eaton and I live in Orange County, California. I've lived here for 38 years or so, and I.
Interested in volunteering for casa? Long time ago. I'm gonna say 15 years. I dunno what the real number is, but it's like all comes together. But I have been on, been doing fundraising for a while and I really found myself wanting to connect to the organization and really find out how they train people, what the process was, how good were we, what was the deal.
So I put myself in a training for 30, it was 30 hours. Then I worked I think I did it like back to back Reagan. It was like really great. But I went ahead and completed that process and became an advocate and was paired with a foster youth in 2016. And Liz is still in my life today.
She's actually, just really become part of our family. She's doing so well and I'm so proud of her. Yeah, I just love what I do with casa. It makes my heart sing. It has been the most important job I've ever had in my life and the most rewarding. And I can't say enough about being a volunteer for CASA and being an advocate.
Thank you.
No, what a beautiful introduction from both of you. So I think we need to dive into more of what is CASA and how does it work and, some realities of the foster system as well. Because unless, like I've learned so much by being friends with you, Nancy and I learned even more by attending CASA introduction and going to Richard's graduation ceremony.
Your husband who's also an advocate and I was shocked at. How the gaps that are there and the realities of the foster system in the US and in California. So maybe we just laid the groundwork of what are some of those realities? So everyone listening can understand
children in the foster care system and the whole epidemic of child neglect and maltreatment is really something that I think a lot of people don't know about and don't talk about it, not just because the circumstances are such that these matters are highly confidential.
They're happening as they should be. They're happening in, in closed session court where, you have to be affiliated with the matter to, to gain access to the proceedings. This is not, a matter of public consumption. But I think sometimes as a result. Folks don't really fully understand the gravity of the situation, the frequency with which this is happening.
And I think sometimes also kids that are in the foster care system end up getting a bad reputation, so to speak, because they're somehow, there's a conflation between kids that are in dependency and kids that are in delinquency. Sometimes there's overlap, but certainly the children that are in the foster care system are there because.
They have been a victim of their circumstances. It's is through no fault of their own, they have experienced some kind of abuse, neglect, abandonment at the hands of the people that are supposed to be providing care for them, and such that it's required the intervention of the court and social services to assess the severity of the circumstances to, to determine whether or not they are safe with their ho, with their parents or with the home that they came from.
And to determine first and foremost for their reunification is possible. That is the primary goal also of dependency is to ultimately reunify that family safely and appropriately if possible. Sadly it's not always possible and so we end up having this overwhelm of children that remain in the system.
Many times until they can emancipate or become an adult and are no longer eligible for services. Across the country, there are over 400,000 children in the foster care system, and California has the highest number of children. Of all the states, we've got over 70,000. And in Orange County we are up 10% through the pandemic.
Then pre pandemic numbers at 3,450 is right where we're hovering these days. It's it's, I think also just being in this community this Orange County community that's generally regarded as being affluent and, folks don't realize how prevalent the circumstances are here as well.
I tell you all the time that Orange County regularly ranks as the highest income disparity county in the us and if you just go to the beach, you're not gonna see it. Why does California have the most kids in foster care? Because that could be a good thing. Like we're helping people who need the help and more proactive about being a stand for kids.
Or it could lean, it could, be correlated to something else. So what's your take on like California rank so high?
I think it's just the population. I think it's a numbers issue. We have a you know, obviously a lot of people living here and the more people you have, the more families you have, the more likely that you are going to be affected in some way or have some sort of interaction with the system.
So I, I think it's really a numbers game. I also think that in many cases there are underlying reasons. For that removal that, that may mental, there are horrific stories of that. I'm sure Nancy has heard, I certainly have borne witness two. I'm an attorney by trade.
I started my career representing children in foster care, and I've seen quite a lot. You can't make up some of the circumstances that drive kids into care. It's really, truly awful. But not, it's not always a circumstance. I think folks tend to think about really horrific abuse physical or sexual abuse type of situation.
Sometimes, it's the struggles of that socioeconomic disparity, that mental illness. There, there may be substance abuse that at play. There are other issues that then I think factor into the underlying problems that the family is facing. Oftentimes, those are obstacles and make it more difficult to successfully complete reunification services.
And I would argue you said that it might be good that there's so many kids in California that are in the system. I don't know that it's a great alternative. It is the only alternative that we have. Yeah. And as someone who has been close with the system, I can tell you nobody goes into this line of work as an attorney, as a social worker, because they don't care.
They absolutely care. But the overwhelm and the burden on the system is. I had 500 kids on my caseload alone as an attorney. That's untenable and unethical, frankly. So yeah that's too many. You can't do a good job. The CASA program and the fact that we can partner these individual volunteers who are choosing to be there and choosing to forge a relationship with a child one-on-one and in some classes of programs, it may not be one-on-one for Orange County it's absolutely a priority for us.
That level of personalized attention and advocacy is a game changer in terms of their experience with the system. And Nancy's experience with Elizabeth is an absolute testament to that.
Yeah. And for everyone listening who doesn't know the full side of it, right? Like when you have a when you're connected to a Casa child, it's really private, as you mentioned earlier, right?
You that you have to hang out with them one-on-one, like no one else is involved. You're not talking about them else, but like it's very private for that casa. So the fact that we can reference Elizabeth now is because she's aged out and now she and Nancy get to have a regular, friend relationship which I think is really great that exists.
I've had the pleasure of meeting Elizabeth and she's awesome. And I really get enjoy that I get to share the pride with Nancy of what she's taking on now. Like it's knowing that a friend is acting as a casa advocate and has all this like joy and pride that they wanna share about their casa kid and like they can't was really interesting to watch.
'cause Nancy would just be like, she's so great. I can't wait to but it's also, there's the so heartbreaking this entire conversation of. So many kids are in need in Orange County alone, let alone California and the us. What's the percentage of kids who go into foster care that do get reunited with their parents or guardians versus those that don't?
Yeah, that's interesting. It's actually a pretty low number. While that's certainly the goal at the outset of the process and depending on the age of the child, what, the sibling structure and whether or not they've been in the system before there's generally a predilection towards giving those, if not a statutory requirement, that those reunification services are afforded.
But the reunification rates are pretty low. I.
It's well below 50%. Probably closer to, I would imagine it's below 30%. So we're talking about a lot of children that are not going to be having that successful reunification. And it may take, and even if they do, it may take years before it really can happen. Whether it's a reunification with their family of origin or it's an adoption or other permanent type of outcome with a guardian legal guardian outside of the system.
Yeah.
So the, that number includes people adopted out of the system.
And that's why I'm hesitant. I actually shoulda have a better statistic on cuni. Are low, but reunification success is low. But it is, it, you, I know that the number of successful outcomes coming outta the system are not as high as we would like them to be.
Yeah.
Richard's CAA kid reunified with his family and it was a, there was maybe four or five kids in the family and they ended up reunifying with the dad, not the mom. But that was interesting.
Yeah.
And then all your thoughts and feelings of the casa and is this the right thing or is it the wrong thing?
You're giving input and what and how they decide that, how that happens. And it, it did all, they, it took a long time. I think he was yeah. In foster care for a while.
What do you wish people knew about Casa that you, that people probably don't? What do you wish they knew?
I'll just jump right in on that, but I just really want people to be inspired, to volunteer some of their life, to make a difference for other people.
And if we as advocate, get our job done and do what we can to guide a young person through that part of their life. The, it's like a great, it's huge that a kid becomes an adult and they are successful in the world, but also what it means to our community, not to have a kid on the streets suffering, pinning a, paycheck.
A paycheck, maybe if they have a job, they're not homeless. It's just exponential. How the community is positively impacted by your volunteering, your time and your energy and, sharing your heart with somebody really. That's what I would want people to know. What a difference you can make.
And Nancy, maybe you'll explain a little bit more of what it really is like to be a casa. Like how much time is it like, I think the closest correlation people have listening probably is like a big brother, big sister program, right? And it's very different. So what does it mean to be an advocate?
I can tell you what it meant for me. I think it really is determined by the age of the child and what's going on with them and how involved you need to be. I spent at least two to three days a month with Elizabeth and I would pick her up from school. We would do any errands that she needed to do.
We'd have some kind of dinner at our, usually we ate at one place. It's our favorite place right by our school. And then, we would talk, we would just spend one-on-one time talking about what's up, what's next? What do we need to make happen? Any issues she had in her group home or where she was living.
But I would text, we'd communicate between sessions that we would work together. And that's like the time commitment. She lives about 10 miles up the road from me. And, but it's like at the three o'clock time you'd have to at school, I felt like a, you a mom again, going to pick up the school and I'd have to be there on time.
And the most important thing for me was to be on time and be there every time I said I would be. And so I'd start out like an hour ahead of time just to make sure I made it happen. But that's the time thing. But as far as the emotional investment, it's pretty there was some stuff that, we had conversations about.
We have just, we. Really broke things down and talked about real issues for her. And, that's an emotional connection that you're making. And it's give and take because she's she was great and she gave back to me too. And, her appreciation and her how grateful she was to be with me.
And gosh, I can't say enough about that. She's smart and it was just, it was just I lost my train of thought because that's where I go when I'm talking about her. But I spent a lot of time also working with like the teachers, but something wasn't going wrong and I'd work. I like the social workers and there was different people in her community that needed to, I needed to talk to.
So I was finding out who they were, giving 'em a call, calling 'em back, blah, blah, blah. And so that's a little bit of effort in getting in there and work to do. Was pretty easy. I don't think she was a typical person. I dunno, maybe she's yeah, that's it. Did I leave anything out?
I guess my question to Reagan is like how does Nancy's experience working with a teenager vary than a casa advocate for someone who is in middle school or grade school or even under five.
Yeah. There are children that are in the foster care system and they range between age, birth essentially, and up to 18. And if you have been in the foster care system before the age of 18 for any period of time, you're able actually then at that point to elect to remain until the age of 21.
And then there might be entitled to additional support and benefits, which is some, a maybe 10-year-old legislation. And a nice benefit. I think Elizabeth took advantage of that, I believe. Yeah. So yeah, we are seeing an increase kids with Casa who are taking advantage of that opportunity.
'cause not all kids do. And I would say that the bulk of the kids that our program works with fall into that 13 to 15 age range. That's the overwhelming demographic that we get referred. And that's typically, I think, consistent with kids that are probably at that stage where they're not likely to be reunified.
They're probably not likely to be on an adoption track. And so now it's really a lot of. That time and effort with the CASA going into preparing for independent living identifying different resources, keeping them on track for school and focused on, what lies ahead and how to be prepared for that.
But that's not to say that we don't have CASAS that work with children that are younger than that, or older than that. That definitely seems to be our sweet spot in terms of the referrals that we get. So yeah, sometimes these outings look like going, to the park and going to, we have a lot of community partners that will give us tickets and museum, offerings.
We have a great partnership with OC Parks and we try to. And as much as we're able for these advocates and youth to do fun things together. So it's one less thing for the advocate to have to worry about planning and prepping and paying for, because we also have a dollar limit that we put on their spend when they're together.
Which is also a little tricky here in Orange County. It's a $25 spend. So it just depends. It really all depends on that child and on what they like and what their needs are and what the advocate is able and willing to do to help satisfy that. I did wanna just add on in terms of the commitment and Nancy articulated beautifully the way that the relationship looks once you get started.
I'll say that, we ask a lot of the volunteers. That's a big distinction between, as you mentioned Casa and a Big Brothers Big Sisters, for example, is not just that advocacy piece the opportunity that we have to let our volunteers participate in the court proceedings and be a trusted and reliable source of information from all the professionals on that team to include the judge, teachers, therapists, social workers.
Everybody's interested in the CASA's point of view, but we do put them through a pretty significant training process on the front end. That's 34 hours of training. I think that's up from when you went through it, Nancy, right? Even just a few more hours because we've got that mandatory reporter stuff.
It's a lot. And during the pandemic it's been a little bit. Easier because we've offered that through Zoom and we didn't have it in person, but pre pandemic, that was all in person. Evenings, weekends we do a pretty thorough screening process. We obviously wanna make sure that everyone's background checked and vetted and we do in interviews and all of that references.
We really wanna make sure that we're connecting, appropriate people with the most vulnerable children in our community. It can be a little daunting on the front end, but what I love about Nancy's explanation is that once you get past all that it is, there's a lot more rewarding and it isn't as time consuming as it might seem at the front end.
Yeah, like Nancy forgot all of it because she was just so excited about her time with Lizabeth
like childbirth, which is great,
Yes, exactly. I think it's also important to speak to the statistics of what happens for kids who are in foster care the, when they're adults, the increase rates of homelessness or jail time, all of the things low employment status.
There's a lot of things that impact statistically when you're a foster kid. What are some of those and how does having a casa change those statistics? And, sorry, I keep asking about statistics, but I think like the numbers matter so much in this conversation 'cause it's to, every time I hear them, it's like a wow factor.
And any number that we need to like, put in the show notes or have me talk about later when this is going to air, no problem. I can like, put a note in to. Fact? Yes.
On a personal level, I'll let Reagan quote the percentages, but on a personal level Liz and I would always have conversations about when to start a family and when so we'd have these full on like money conversations about what it takes to have a baby and support them and what it takes, emotionally and that was one of the things that I think really hit home for her to really put that decision off until she's ready, emotionally, financially, everything.
And it worked, that I think it made a big impact on her to delay that decision to be a mom.
And I can understand, going through a system where you want to be loved so badly that it sounds like a solution to create something that has to love you.
And I think to the extent that you haven't.
Received, been the recipient of that sort of unconditional love and support. That does seem like the immediate or most automatic solution to something like that. And of course, these children often not realizing that, it's exactly the opposite. That this is where you've gotta put all of your love and time and attention into someone that really needs you.
And we do see a lot of recidivism and minor mothers children going through the system who are now and it not just as through their own dependency, but because they've now had a child and expose their child to the needing the support of the system as well.
It's fairly common. And in terms of the other statistics, yeah, it's it does look rather bleak. When you look at the numbers there's really glaring statistics about the kind of moving from system to system, the dependency, the foster care system is often referred to a pipeline referred to as a pipeline to prison.
And that's not a joke because that there's actually statistics that it up to 80%. The California prison population has spent some time in foster care. That is really says a lot just in terms of that crossover, that youth, that crossover from dependency to delinquency, to it becoming, a lifetime in some system or another.
I think it's one outta four kids that emancipate from the system or age out will be homeless within, the next year to two years. It's real. And then that high school graduation rate for California foster youth is 48%. Because Pasa works with the child exclusively under the our, it's, we're a codified part of the welfare and institution system.
So our work with them is done during their time within the dependency system. We don't have a lot of. We have a lot of anecdotal information about what happens after the fact because a lot of our volunteers will continue to stay in touch, not only with that youth, but with us as well. So we've got a lot of wonderful stories and examples of, like Nancy's of youth who have gone on to do great things, graduate, get jobs and start their family.
And lots of advocates who have been a part of that process been, stood up for them in their wedding as a best man even and been a part of all of those special processes. But I will tell you that the high school graduation rate, the bleak 48% graduation rate for children in the foster care system jumps to 93% when you put a casa on the case.
And so what I amazing think that does it's amazing. It's truly amazing what think that Yeah, it's, it truly is. But what I think the power of that, no. Single statistic is that you can extrapolate something that powerful into just about every other facet of their life, even if we don't have hard statistics on those things.
And, oftentimes I'll get asked, what does success look like? Yeah. For these kids. And it's really tough to answer that question because there is no one definition of success for these children. Certainly we want to be able to, open their eyes to all the possibilities and their own intellect and confidence and tap into that for themselves, knowing that they have a cheerleader and someone who's going to be there to, to support them through it.
But for some of these kids, it success might mean, getting up and going to school in the morning, it might look drastically different. And every case is very different and we wanna make sure that we're. We're really addressing the unique needs of that youth with every hope and opportunity that they can come outta the system as an independent, self-sufficient contributing member of society.
I was so struck when I went to the introduction to be an Acosta advocate that Nancy hosted our house, and I think it was it Miguel who was there? Nancy?
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. But he shared a story of the child in foster care who is Casa taught him that how to deposit his checks. Like he had a box full of checks and he's I haven't been getting paid.
And they were like, what? And realized that this child was never taught how you get paid, like how you deposit checks, what banking system looks like. And I've had Christie Dinsmore on the podcast who's the, a co-founder of Revolution, which is helping. Kids leaving incarceration and reintegrating into society, and usually they've been in jail since they were young 18 at the oldest and often younger.
And she shared a very similar story of how part of the programming they offer is just teaching them how to do normal functioning things that we forget that someone had to teach us. And it's, there's so many things that if no one tells you, you just don't know they exist because they don't show up in your world.
And so that, that story always stays with me. It's okay, they don't know about banking and how to get, get paid. Then they probably don't know about how to, what you do to go to the dentist or to make doctor's appointments, or how to interview or apply for jobs or, even just, how you show up for etiquette at a place so that you, can be an adult and fit into some of these scenarios that might be outside of your scope. Like even myself growing up in New England, I'm so happy that we ha were forced to go to a etiquette class one day, because you show up at places and you're like, that's a lot of forks. And I'm, I've never even seen silverware, so of this fancy, so now what?
That's a great, that's a great project, Carol. We can do cotillion. We can do a cotillion for foster kids. Like where's that? What's the etiquette? Where's your napkin? Where, how do you do this? And where do you sit? And do you pull the chair out? The whole thing? I like that.
Oh yeah. We've actually had one of those dinners before we used to have an annual dinner at Five Crowns.
They would host a dinner and we would be able to send some kids and they would have that experience of learning. All of that actually on, on site. At Casa at our headquarters, we have a small kitchen. And oftentimes the advocates will come in with the youth and that. Where they'll teach them how to make spaghetti.
And, cook basic, meals and bake together. And we have a little table right outside. It's there for staff, anyway but we open it up and of course always get very excited when advocates come in with the youth to do this onsite. 'cause it's a real treat, especially when they make something delicious and then they come and run and share.
But I have seen them sit outside at that table and bring all the utensils and all of the, place setting and set 'em up and then sit and enjoy their meal and have that little mini etiquette class, just the two of them, just to learn those things. But even just to acknowledge that, learning about banking a che or depositing checks and banking and etiquette.
There are even circumstances. That I, that you wouldn't believe One of my most, most memorable cases that we've had come through was when we matched up one of our advocates who had grown up with a deaf mute sibling. And so she was fluent in sign language and there was a young man who had been at a group home for a period of time and he was, had many behavioral issues.
He was non-communicative, non-verbal struggling in school, really had a tough time. Never formally diagnosed in any particular. Meaningful way. And she was welcomed as the advocate onto this group home site and said we, you can't go offsite with this young man. He's very dangerous. He's harmful to himself.
He's, you've gotta stay on site where we can see you in this room. And he was essentially a prisoner on this, property not being allowed to do things through time, patience, consistency, and creativity. She started teaching him using some of the signings that she had used with her sibling and showing him pictures and realizing that he was very receptive and was able to learn and understand and communicate with her.
And she advocated to get permission to take him offite so that she could expose him to more things and more words, thereby increasing his language. And then she went to his school and got on his IEP team and started advocating for him in the classroom. He was a deaf mute person who had never, no one had taken the time.
To even try to understand that this was something that he was, of course he had behavioral issues. Yeah, of course. He was violent and acting out, and of course he was dangerous. And depressed, this woman tell, but no one and every school has an obligation to pay attention to offer services, but you have to be, have an advocate.
You have to have someone who is raising the flag and saying, we got something here. And someone who has willing to ask questions and get curious and be creative about exploring options. And this woman, single handedly changed his life. He can communicate. He has friends, he plays on a, a Special Olympics basketball team.
He has a completely different life. Because of her it's, it'll make me cry. It's just, there's so many things that these advocates do. It is. Just unbelievable to me through that patience and that willingness to be there for someone else and to ask questions, that's all.
Yeah.
And so often when we talk about, our country being divided, or the world being divided into individual countries, whenever you talk to people, usually they say, we should take care of kids. That's a universal human thing. Wherever you show up, people wanna have good food and have a dinner together, and they wanna take care of their family, their kids, their elderly, like it.
It's just part of the human experience. And this is such an opportunity for people to really step into that in a bigger way because there are so many kids who need it. Yeah. And the fact that yes, there's hours to do the training and make it happen, but once you're in that space. Like you get to go meet an incredible human that you don't know yet.
So obviously there's lots of compelling reasons to become, to work with Casa to volunteer, to donate, to become an advocate yourself. But I'm really curious I'm gonna start with Reagan of how did you end up in Casa? Was this something that you go back to 8-year-old, you, would you imagine that this is what your life has been dedicated to or does it surprise you where you've landed?
I don't know that 8-year-old you would've comprehended any of this. But I will say, and I don't know what exactly it was that really compelled me to pursue advocacy for children. But I will say that it's been a part of my background for as long as I've been an adult adulting.
Yeah. I, my origin story with Casa goes back to me having an internship when I was in graduate school in New York City and spending that second year at casa. And really getting a hands on eye-opening approach to what the needs are in the system and how dramatic the need is and being, I think, in that setting in New York City and all Casa, there's about 950 chapters across the United States.
They all operate a little bit differently. But it's this basic premise, same basic premise across. And so I was frequently in the courtroom on behalf of the CASA volunteers who were unable to attend. And it was shocking to me that these attorneys that were supposed to be representing the kids. Did not know, a lot about what was going on.
I often felt like I was the one who had the most information to share or the most accurate understanding of the circumstances of the case. And here I was just this little intern, and I thought to myself, oh, I'm, I feel like I could advocate in a larger, better way than these attorneys, that are, that don't seem to really, there was a lot of apathy.
So off I went on my journey to become this attorney who, with these letters behind my name, would somehow be a better, stronger, more important advocate. Only to go through that whole process. I dedicated, came back to Orange County dedicated a lot of my non-class learning time to working as an investigator here with minor's counsel and still being pretty close up and personal with it.
Only to get a rude awakening upon, stepping into that courtroom and getting assigned 500 cases to realize it wasn't really apathy that I was under, receiving or yeah. It was just that overwhelm. During my time as an attorney representing kids here, I regularly sought out my CASA volunteers referred as many cases as I could to get one because I just truly valued the service that they provide and the information.
They were a member of the team, certainly someone I relied upon. I served on the board for a period of time, the governing board of directors here in Orange County. Got a little bit closer to the organization, saw some of the fundraising components, and really got to look at it as a larger entity.
And gosh, it's now gonna be seven years and. In July, which is really hard to believe that I've been a part of the organization from the staff side first running programs and then ultimately overseeing the entire enterprise. And it's just one of those things that I feel like once you know about this issue, once you know about this need, you can't not know it.
You can't not see it anyway like it's there and you've, I, it just gets it under your skin and in your blood. And I can't relate to these children. I've had a wonderful childhood and I had wonderful parents and all of my needs basic and otherwise were always met.
But I also know that I didn't do anything to deserve that. It was a circumstance of my, of birth lottery. And just I look at these kids and recognize the same thing in them. And I also just feel that if people aren't compelled to this cause, because of the heartstrings behind it at the end of the day, we're paying for all of these kids anyway.
And if we can get in there and intervene in an earlier stage the better off we are and keeping them out of other government run systems for the long haul.
Yeah. Amazing.
Yeah.
And Nancy, how did you get first introduced to cas?
Through fundraising and friends parent friends of our children were very active and very enrolling and said, can you help?
And I said, of course I can. And I was off and running at that point. And prior to that, back in, I don't know, so long ago, I went to an event that was a CASA thing and really was touched, moved, and inspired. And then that was in my twenties I think. I circled back and immediately started working on fundraising and getting auction items and working with the this committee and doing all the things that Casa needs done in order to get their job done.
Because if we don't fundraise, we're not gonna have volunteers. We're not gonna have people to support the volunteers. So it's always been a form, something on my plate that I love to do because I know what effect it has down the line. And always gonna raise my hand to do whatever I can. So I just raised my hand, got moved and inspired, turned on and lit up.
And I always will be that way.
Of course this is the Powerful Ladies podcast. So I would love to know what both of you think of the words powerful. And ladies, are their definitions different when those words are separate? And does the definition change for you when they're next to each other?
I take on power powerful as a not an aggressive word, but as using what you have to the best benefit and in a way that makes a difference. And when you are, sourced. I have an incredible husband who, you know. Just stuff happen. And anytime I need anything's right there, and if I'm off, he's just okay, what are up to whatcha committed to?
And where are you gonna use your power today? And pretty much I think being powerful is amazing in the right place. And I always wanna be that and have that, and it's my goal to be a powerful lady together or apart.
Yeah. And I think that there are no more powerful ladies than that one right there that Nancy Eaton.
She is really just tremendous and a really great example of what it means to be a powerful lady in this community. I love Nancy's definition. I do think it's about using what you've got and finding a way to to do good to use your skillset and your knowledge and your experience, good, bad, and different.
But to channel that into something that can make a difference. And I think women are inherently skilled at doing that. And so I love that you're shining a light on it.
I think it's no, no surprise that more and more women are putting themselves in entrepreneurship roles or in corporate roles where they get to really lead with their heart and kind of change what leadership and power looks like.
I ha I see such a shift from when I first started in the corporate world, and so many of the. Female leadership was very much mimicking a masculine style of leadership. 'cause there was no other example. And it's been really amazing to see that pivot where a lot of what was you, a full pa in a business setting is starting to shift, I think because more and more women realize we're leaving half of ourselves if not more outside of this environment.
And there's so many holistic 360 skills that we could be bringing to the table. And I also know that women are notoriously and stereotypically and statistically bad at giving themselves credit. I ask everyone on the podcast where you put yourself on the powerful 80 scale. If zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful 80 you can imagine where would you put yourself on that scale and today and on average?
Wow. An interesting question. And I think especially in light of the, your reference to the fact that women are I think very likely or unlikely to give themselves credit, I think it would be really interesting to know how women generally respond on this podcast to that.
Because I'm excited to dump all that, all the statistics from every episode to some psychologist to do the full study.
'cause it's fascinating to me hearing all the answers.
Yeah. I've been listening to the inquiry about the chief justice yes. And so we, Kathi, when I think of a powerful lady I'm thinking about her. She's like an 11, right?
And if not a 20 after her patience and calm and collectiveness.
Yeah.
She's a 20. I'm gonna put myself at a seven because I got some work to do. I'm still working.
Love it. Have a great, I love that too. I love that too, Nancy. I'm thinking about this and I think I'm always not that I'm not capable of looking at all of the great and all of the wonderful things that I feel like I can accomplish in a day, let alone, over the course of a lifetime.
I tend to always focus on where I fall short and what I didn't get done. And that's where the attempt, which is so awful 'cause I would never wanna do that to my children or to anybody else. But that's where my, my.
Gone to a six, but I'm gonna bump it up because I like that. And I'll tell you that stepping into leadership at casa, I, I didn't intend to be necessarily in a leadership role here. I've fallen into it, and I think maybe as a result of that, or maybe I don't know, I don't know what it is, but I definitely feel like I brought, because I don't know any other way to be an authentic way of being into that environment.
I was I'm a mother first and foremost. I have got, three children and one of them was quite little when I started. They're all, he's still little, but he was, really little when I started and I don't cross some magical threshold and all of a sudden not have those priorities.
I am who I am everywhere I go. And that includes, by the way, my commitment. To this organization. It's not like I walk the other side of the threshold and the light turn the lights off and I'm no longer there. It's with me. It's, but work is, it's not a place to go. It's what you do and it's with you always.
And I think that it's a motto that was instilled in me by my parents growing up. You are the work, it's not a place you go, you are the work. And it really translated well over these past couple of years as we were working from home. But as I tried to explain to people, maybe they understood that better.
But yeah, I think it's really critical and lovely to see female leaders bringing that into different workplaces. And that is one thing that I do feel particularly proud of is that I have a lot of young, younger women and mothers and all kinds of women that work at Casa who have been, I think very happy to know that, they don't have, there's a children's advocacy organization for Yeah, for crying out loud. Of course we're gonna prioritize your own family and your own children, and that's, there's a balance with everything. But that always is gonna come first. And I don't, you shouldn't feel bad about it and you shouldn't feel like you can't own that and express it and live authentically and holistically and through your work.
I appreciate you raising that because it's definitely a challenge. And when that we continue to navigate.
I like your seven too. Like seven. And I like the gap between the seven and the 20, the gap living in that is very empowering for me. It's wow, there's the gap and here I'm going to go fill it.
So it, yeah, it, not a problem for me. A seven.
Yeah. I, from the outside looking in, when I think about the work that you guys do on a daily basis, I think about wow, like one, you must take actions that feel brave on a regular basis to be a stand for the commitments you have for these kids and what they're going through.
And at the same time, like you must be Jedi masters at how you deal with the emotional weight that you can't help but absorb in these topics. And in the, in knowing what you know, so it's a two part question of how often do you feel like you have to be brave and step into a bigger space than you maybe thought you were prepared for?
And then second is, how do you make sure that you're taking care of yourself and your own mental health and making sure that you aren't just filling a backpack full of every horrible thing that you've heard in on this journey.
Yeah. Good questions. I think that a question I got asked a lot when I started practicing in this area and would tell people what I did every day, especially at practicing.
At this point, I'm not in it, I'm not frontline. Yeah. I get to I often tell people the best part of my job right now is that I get to see a whole lot of good in everybody. I get to see these volunteers coming to the table. Our incredible supporters coming to the table, our board of director. I get to, I see.
That there is so much good and I see the good in people coming forward and coming to the table to be a part of a solution. So that is absolutely hands down the best part of what I get to do. Now, walking into this field though at the outset and every step along the way, up until this point, I would get the question of my gosh, how can you do that work?
How, what, how are you doing it? Why are you doing it? It must be exhausting and hard and all of those things. And it is, but I, my answer is always I dunno. But someone has to do it. And as long as I am feeling emotionally and mentally and physically capable of stepping into that and intellectually brave enough to step into it and be that person I'm gonna continue to do it because someone has to.
And so I don't know what it is that. Reinforces that and reignites it or keeps it lit at a minimum inside. But it hasn't. There's been moments where I've had to step away and certainly create some space, but I can't ever, not, like I said, not ever fully step away and not know that it's there.
And yeah, I do think that the mental health and the self-care and all of that is certainly something that is always on my mind. It's always on my mind for the people that work at casa, the volunteers, the folks that are really putting themselves on the front lines. I'm trying to be better at role modeling that myself because I think we tend as mothers, as leaders, as powerful ladies.
You just, you just pack it in and you keep going because what is the alternative, right? And I've certainly done a fair amount of that, but I've been fortunate to be able to also, we have an incredible member of our board who runs a fitness studio. And one of the ways that he gives back to the community is by allowing certain nonprofit leaders an opportunity to benefit from working out there.
Because he feels like it's a way for the leader to address themselves and get themselves right, and that if they're right, there's gonna be that, trickle down effect everywhere else. And I have told him repeatedly that I think that I've been able to last as long in the role as I have in no small order because of that benefit that he's offered.
And it's made a huge difference. Physical exercise and definitely shutting things off when you can, which is not always very often.
How about you, Nancy?
How, tell me the question specifically because Sure. It was two part. Reagan did a great job. I'm like, complete.
Have you, how often have you had to expand your willingness to step into your bravery to be a part of CASA and to be an advocate?
Wow. Reagan last year I was called a couple, I don't know, three, four days a week ahead of time to to speak at a celebration of children instead of do the video that we had recorded.
And, it's a talk in front of two 50 people. And I would, I, and all I did was say, yes, of course, no problem. And I remember Reagan calling me up. She says, I'm so sorry. This is so short notice. Are you okay? And I'm like, no, I'm fine. This is great. I'm born for this. I'm doing this, and you don't have to worry about a thing.
So I was super, put my big girl panties on and got to it. That's my most recent being really brave. But in the role of it as an advocate, I think being brave is, being with a teenager that's not yours, and being willing to be vulnerable to them and listen to their stories and not respond in a way that elicits more anxiety.
But to just be that calm person that, that happened quite a bit for me and. I think you've really gotta be brave to take on those conversations authentically instead of just glide over them which is what we did and we really worked through a lot of that. So those are two immediate responses I can think of, Kara, that really.
Yeah. And then I'm, we're gonna have a celebration of children gala on August 27th. Everybody's in, that's listening's invited to, and I'll be sharing that with my friend Karen Jordan. And it is gonna be a great night of celebrating what we do best, which is children. So that's my latest brave thing.
Last few weeks,
endless bravery. And she, honestly, Nancy killed at this event in September when she got up there and I just, I wanted to make sure she was okay when this was a change of plans and she. It was like a mic drop moment. She said, I was born for this. And I was like, okay, you have got this.
And man I mean I don't know that we'll ever have a moment quite like that ever again. It was so spectacular. Just amazing. Nancy. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you for sourcing
that because you really gave me the power to get the job done and really being my support team on that whole deal. That was, it was great.
It was a great evening and I think people really got what CASA does, who volunteers are, and what the difference we do make for our kids. And I just, yeah. So thank you for the opportunity. Love, love it.
And for me, it's such a highlight of, you being uncomfortable for five days to prep. 'cause you wanted to make this the best speech people had heard, to move people, to take actions to support these kids.
You taking those five days to be uncomfortable created huge results. And I think sometimes we get so nervous to be uncomfortable when how long we have to be uncomfortable is actually very small to cause that the impact we want.
The other byproduct of that, Kara, was that Liz got to be at the celebration and she actually spoke in front of the same group after I spoke.
And that's brave. I've got a foster kid on stage speaking her story and sharing and acknowledging and being grateful to everybody that's there makes me wanna cry right now. That was the really unique things to put in her life that she's gonna be sourced by for a long time.
It's bravery bri getting bravery, right?
It's, you mentioned Keanjay Brown Jackson, who's, the Supreme Court nominee. Seeing what she's going through right now in this approval process is just making me be like, okay. She's at a 20. We all gotta rise up at least two. We gotta make that a little closer because there's the gap. Like I, I literally posted a thing on TikTok my second ever.
'cause I was so fired up about this. I'm like, she needs a referee. I volunteer. Yeah. But it's, you, we, you realize, like for me seeing justice Jackson looking on TV anyway, like she's sitting there by herself and being so poised and so calm, it really makes me wanna come back to how can all of us who are committed to big things, who are being brave every day, who are, being heart lit in what we do, how do we remember that everyone's around us?
Because there's so much more power in standing side by side with people than feeling like it's just you on that stage.
Yeah. It's true.
For everyone who has moved and inspired and wants to support, donate, volunteer, become an advocate, where can everybody go and how can they support and follow?
Absolutely.
They can first and foremost, they should go to our website casa oc.org. They should absolutely come to support Nancy at the event and CAA in general. On August 27th at the Marriott, Newport Beach is gonna, the new, it's no longer Marriott is it? Vea, that's what it's called.
Vea.
It's very Freshy. Very awesome.
Yeah. It's supposed to be beautiful. Beautiful. We have a series of events and gatherings throughout the year. We have some really amazing supporters that just are very fun people always making sure we've got something fun going on. We've got a pickleball tournament coming up on June 4th at the Newport Beach Tennis and Pickleball Club, and we do a holiday luncheon event every December as well, which is really.
Beautiful and special. It's a fashion show and luncheon. But if you wanna become a, an advocate, which is really, the biggest need that we have and to open yourself up to the training and to potentially being matched with the child and the foster care system. Someone who you can, advocate for and develop a relationship with.
That's our number one need. And you would just go to our website casa oc.org, and you can sign up for an informational session. That would be the first step. And then make sure that it's, all the things you think it, it might be, get some questions answered and then you can sign up for training.
We offer trainings every other month. So we're in we're in a, finishing up a training right now. We'll have a swear in April, and we'll start a new class in May.
Awesome. And for people who are curious, is there an age limit? Yeah. Top or bottom of that scale to be an advocate.
Yeah. Thank you for that.
I tell people all the time, what we're looking for are people who are over 21, because yes, you do have to be 21 years of age to be a volunteer over 21, gonna clear a background check. That's pretty important. But open heart, open mind. You don't need to have any background or experience in social work and psychology and in the law, none of it.
We will walk you through that process and give you training and much of our program staff really is these coaches, these case supervisors that we have that really ultimately act as a coach to all of our volunteers and stand alongside them as they navigate the process and help them through their advocacy and answer questions and offer encouragement.
We'll provide the rest, open heart, open mind, and walk through. And you don't need
to be a parent, right? You can just show up as No.
Yes, absolutely. It's just a relationship. You don't have to have children of your own or particularly, aspire to, to not at all. You don't need to aspire to be a parent of to anyone else.
It's really just about developing that relationship and that, that mentorship and advocacy piece.
Yeah. It has been such a pleasure to meet you Reagan, and to have you and Nancy a Yes to me, a yes. The powerful is podcast. Thank you Nancy, for being a stand that this conversation happened.
And I just really wanna acknowledge both of you for the work that you're doing, for the people who need it most in this community and for inspiring so many people. I really can't wait to hear the impact that this conversation has and to see again, the power that you guys have continue to multiply and expand.
So thank you so much.
Thank
you.
Thank you, Kara. Thank you for having us and for all you're doing to highlight powerful ladies throughout the community. It's wonderful.
All the links to connect with Reagan, Nancy, and Casa, are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, and leave us a rating and review. It is so critical so that this podcast has more visibility and our guests get their story heard by more people.
Come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me, please visit kara duffy.com or follow me on Instagram at Kara Duffy. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode and a brand new amazing guest. Until then, I hope we're taking on being powerful in your life.
Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Website: www.casaoc.org
LinkedIn: casa-oc
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Email: mwadlinger@casaoc.org
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Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
