April is both Volunteer Appreciation Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month—occasions to raise awareness about child welfare and how volunteers can help. Let’s champion those who devote time and talents to serving others!  Whether coaches, mentors or tutors, in schools or hospitals, volunte ers assist those of all ages and bring us together. Josiah Brown Credit: PSW As the United Way and community action agencies recognize, there’s a constant need for such volunteers —even if they cannot replace the authority and adequate funding of public agencies, or the philanthropy providing crucial complementary resources for professional staff and infrastructure (accounting, rent, software, insurance, etc.) The limitations —and power— of volunteering From Tocqueville’s age to our own, volunteers have energized our “associations” and communities.  “Social capital” networks of relationships can compound and intersect— yielding benefits at little cost.  Organizations like CoGenerate promote such action with the belief that “working across generations can reduce divisions in our society” and help address problems: social isolation, hunger, educational inequality. Some may view volunteering as a luxury struggling workers, with demanding schedules, can’t afford.  That can be true, and there should be safety nets for all, including transportation, child- and health care.  Still, many adults can find a few hours a month.  We should thank everyone who does! Volunteering alone is no cure for society’s ills.  We need government (with merits that may be forgotten or taken for granted) at all levels.  Professional staff are important to nonprofits’ effective, sustained operation—and deserve competitive compensation.   Volunteers, though, are key partners. The child welfare example A January 2026 Connecticut Mirror article on public defenders described “an attorney shortage,” with “pay rates … even lower for child protection cases.”  According to the Mirror, “How did compensation for state contract attorneys get this bad? Over 15 years, there were no meaningful rate increases while inflation degraded the pay. Attorneys stopped taking cases.”  Meanwhile, “‘As the list of attorneys declined, we had to give more assignments to existing ones,’ which made the job even more unattractive … chief public defender John Day told the … Mirror.”  This is the situation for attorneys who contract with the state to represent children, and separately parents, in cases involving the Department of Children and Families (DCF).  These cases are on the child protection side of the juvenile court. In Connecticut, volunteer lawyers —professional attorneys lending pro bono time to child welfare cases— supplement attorneys paid by contract.  Lawyers for Children America, based in our state, liaises with firms and prepares their attorneys (whose regular specialties may range from real estate or environmental law to corporate litigation) to represent children on a pro bono basis. So, every youngster in this system has an Attorney for the Minor Child, whether paid by the state or pro bono, to represent their wishes in court.  Children also have social workers from DCF, as well as other professionals in their lives —from educators to physicians and therapists. Volunteer court appointed special advocates Still, more volunteers can help, which is the rationale for the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) movement nationwide.  Nearly every child can benefit from having a caring, consistent volunteer looking out for them —just for them (and sometimes a sibling or two).  As research shows, having at least one caring adult in a young person’s life is critical to the development of resilience. CASA volunteers build relationships with children, connecting them and their families to resources. CASA prepares evidence-based reports regarding children’s best interests, to inform judges’ decisions—helping children find safe, permanent homes to thrive. Professionals have heavy caseloads, and in Connecticut —where inequality is extreme and living costs high— families often struggle.  Challenges include: to stay in their homes, feed and clothe their children, attend to their medical and dental needs, ensure they go to and keep up in school, and enjoy anything remotely resembling the extracurricular and summer opportunities that many other families take for granted.  Parental substance use, intimate-partner violence, and mental illness are complicating factors. Neglect more common than abuse Child neglect is far more common than outright abuse.  Preventing both is critical to the healthy development of children and their prospects academically, psychologically, and behaviorally, as well as physically. April is a time to focus on ways families —along with professionals from realms including law, education, and social services— can prevent harm to children.  More affirmatively, it’s a month to celebrate volunteers’ role in furthering youth development. CASA volunteers are among those filling such roles.  This movement is growing statewide, drawing dedicated men and women to advance the best interests of children who have experienced abuse or neglect.  Participating in protective supervision as well as foster care cases, CASA volunteers can reinforce prevention objectives and —as part of a team with DCF, attorneys, and others— rally resources for children and families, while informing judges’ decisions about best interests. The CASA approach is associated with increased stability and permanency for children, as those with CASA volunteers are only about half as likely to return to the foster care system, and emerge with greater hope, a key to resilience.  There is a one-on-one connection to an adult and greater access to community services through the sustained, resourceful efforts of that caring adult. The aim: to keep families together wherever safely possible, and if not, to reunify them in a timely way, if that is in the child’s best interest.  A stable guardianship —with kin if feasible— or adoption may prove necessary.  Ultimately, we seek safe, permanent homes where children are more likely to thrive. We are grateful for the volunteers, in this movement and countless other capacities—from tutoring and coaching to voter registration and blood drives— who enhance our communities and prospects for young people.  Every day, such committed citizens make a meaningful difference.  Collectively, they change lives for the better. A quarter century ago, the late UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called volunteers “a shining example of the brave and caring face of our humanity.”  He observed: “If our hopes of building a better and safer world for all are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.” Amen. Josiah H. Brown is Executive Director of Connecticut CASA, a volunteer-based organization growing statewide.  To volunteer, please email: volunteer[at]ConnecticutCASA[dot]org.   ...read more read less