CASA Quarterbacks: Joe King, Matthew Perkins, Dedmond Elliot, Nate Barber, Peter Reinhardt, James Washington, Taylor Crawford, Hank West, Jefferey Vaughn, Michael Watts, Heyward Bannister, Greg Wilsbacher, Wayne Richardson, Paige Green, Quad Reeves, Thomas Clark, Micheal Green, Heyward Hall, Kevin Brown, Carlton Boyd, and Hassan Ross-El.
On the football field, a quarterback is reassured that his team has his best interests and is working to protect him. Children in the Richland County court system have the same assurances. But this time it’s the quarterbacks who are protecting them.
According to its mission statement, National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association (CASA), “supports and promotes court-appointed volunteer advocacy so that every abused or neglected child can be safe, establish permanence, and have the opportunity to thrive. National CASA and its network of 946 local community programs support volunteers serving children.”
The Richland County CASA has taken that a step further. Seeing the need for more male members and more minority members, the local CASA organization has built a “team” of volunteers called the CASA Quarterbacks who are committed to serving children. What began as a tight group of 13 advocates in 2005 has grown to a dedicated team 100 members strong—and still growing.
One member, Micheal Greene (#36), who has been a part of the CASA quarterbacks since its inception, said the program naturally grew out of the local interest in Gamecock football. His wife, Jennifer Paige, was instrumental in launching the quarterback program.
“Everyone has an interest in football around here, and that seemed to be a natural way to get to people’s hearts,” Greene said. “It was something that really grabbed my wife’s attention and became her calling.”
One of the primary volunteer recruitment activities for the CASA Quarterbacks is hosting quarterly “tailgate” events—public information-sharing sessions where team members describe the value of child advocacy to potential volunteers.
At these events, quarterbacks each sport a custom designed football jersey and carry a football bearing the first names of the children they have advocated for. The number of names on the footballs they carry is a point of pride for team members, a symbol of their commitment to the children they have served.
Greene said his football is so full of names there is hardly any room to add any more. “I think, since I’ve been with the program, I’ve been involved with 50 kids, if not more,” he said. “Some of the kids I am involved with for a short time and others for years and years – sometimes until they are adults.”
Greene says he loves the diverse atmosphere of his CASA colleagues, and they are a great support system for each other, as well as with the children for which they advocate.
“The people who are in CASA Quarterbacks become like a family, but a very diverse family,” he said. “We have judges, lawyers, and blue collar workers. It’s a refreshing culture.”
Greene said his troubled childhood spurred him into wanting to help others. His mother was an alcoholic who had seven children – the first one when she was 16-years-old. Greene, the third born, was adopted into another family and found that support system to be a key factor in achieving the success his biological family couldn’t give him.
“It also made me realize that I understand what they are going through, and what may seem like a terrible life may be just someone doing the best they can,” he said. “It’s our job to try to help the family and reunite them with the children.”
Greene, a father of five and grandfather of nine (with one on the way), said his experience in CASA has been extremely rewarding, with only one child having to be returned to the system after the court stepped in to intervene. However, years later, the child was reunited with his family, so Greene said he has had essentially a “perfect” experience with CASA.
He also said the Richland CASA is a quality organization, and children in the system, which number from 500-700 at any time, have powerful, caring advocates in the CASA program, both with the volunteers and the social workers.
“The case workers would walk through fire for these kids,” he said. “It’s a quality organization.”
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