Resources for Volunteer In-service Training Hours

(Active volunteers, please notify the CASA Office when you have completed trainings.)

The CASA Office has a library of books, DVDs, and other recordings available for borrowing to help volunteers complete their 12 hours of annual in-service training. In addition, the following resources can be accessed online.

• Advocating for Very Young Children in Dependency Proceedings (pdf)
• Engaging Non-resident Fathers (pdf)
• Understanding Substance Abuse (pdf)
• CASAforChildren.org: The National CASA Association website has many training resources that qualify for in-service training hours. A few samples are listed below. These may require Flash Player available free.
  • Interviewing Skills: Talking with a 4-year-old child: Observe some of the strategies and techniques that a volunteer may wish to use in order to break the ice with a caregiver and a pre-school-aged child
  • Interviewing Skills: Talking with a 10-year-old child: Observe some of the strategies and techniques that a volunteer incorporates as she attempts to build rapport with a pre-teen youth.
  • Psychotropic Medication and Children in Foster Care: Tips for Advocates and Judges (pdf)
  • The National CASA Judges Page Newsletter
•  Substance Abuse: The National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare offers excellent online training regarding Understanding Substance Use Disorders, Treatment and Family Recovery: A Guide for Child Welfare Professionals. This training is designed to cover the topic in 5 modules which can be completed at your own pace.
• Post Adoption Services for adoptive parents from Adoption Links. This site explains some of the services that are available to the family and child after a child is adopted.
• The National Children's Advocacy Center:When you register you will have access to many online courses and webinars including information on Intimate Partner Violence, Child Abuse, Trafficking, Burns, Shaken Baby, Sibling abuse - a long list all worth exploring for advocates.
• PA Child Welfare Training offers trainings, many online, on multiple topics pertinent to child advocacy available through the Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center.
• Child Abuse: Hershey Children's Hospital launched a website geared solely towards child abuse.
• The Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia offers easy to understand explanations of PA law governing the care of dependent children.
• The Educational Law Center offers easy to understand explanations of PA law governing the education of children, and works as an advocate for those who are not receiving educational services to which they are entitled.
• Childhood Trauma and Its Effect on Healthy Development is a brief, authored by the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, defining trauma from a developmental perspective to discuss its prevalence and effect on young children, school-aged children and adolescents.
• Where to Go When You Need Help: A Beginners Guide to Human Services
  is a compendium of resources available for people in the Cumberland County area.
• Talk Poverty.org is an online hub where people can learn about poverty in America and what we can do to dramatically reduce it.
• Child Victim Web includes training on the scope and impact of childhood victimization, evidence-based treatment plans, and best practices for helping victimized youth and their families. This site is provided by the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center (NCVC) at the Medical University of South Carolina.
• The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) has a learning portal that houses dozens of free webinars and podcasts on various subjects. Register with the learning center portal to access them.
• Multiplying Connections offers online training to help fulfill its mission to build and sustain a trauma-informed system of services for young children and their families.
• Pathways to Positive Futures offers resources for older youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions as well as training for those working with that population.
• The Annie E Casey Foundation provides webinars and other resources on a range of topics aimed at improving the lives of America's children and their families.
• Step Up for Kin offers resources dedicated to supporting kinship placement for dependent children.
• Human Trafficking Awareness training
• Free online trainings from the NCSACW (National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare) focus on the subjects of substance abuse and child welfare; they support and facilitate collaboration between the child welfare system, the substance abuse treatment system and the courts. 
• Prevent Child Abuse America has many resources and research data available.
• A short 15-minute TED talk explores Adverse Childhood Experiences and how they impact a person for life.
• Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse: Mandated and Permissive Reporting in Pennsylvania is available as an online course. The course is approximately three hours long followed by a short evaluation and a certificate of completion You do not have to complete the course in one session. This training is required for all CASAs with active cases  and before a new CASA can receive a new case. Please provide a copy of the certificate of completion to the CASA office.