After learning more about the program, some prospective volunteers self-select themselves out of the advocate program, but still support the CAJA concept financially and through membership in CAJA Friends . As a CAJA volunteer, you will encounter situations that make you feel sad enough to cry, angry enough to lash out, and hopeless enough to quit. No matter how frustrating the job may seem at times, CAJA volunteers DO make a difference in the lives of children who often have no other voice. The CAJA Friends group is chartered as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization dedicated to fundraising for and community awareness about the CAJA program. CAJA Friends supports the Madison County CAJA program with grants and community awareness programs.
Memberships are available at several levels.
A CAJA provides the judge with a carefully researched background of the child and the child's family to help the court make a sound decision about that child's future. The CAJA must determine if it is in the child's best interest to stay with his or her parents, be placed for foster care, or be freed for permanent out of home placement or adoption. To prepare a recommendation, the CAJA volunteer talks with the child, parents, family members, social workers, school officials, health providers, and others that are knowledgeable about the child's history. Social workers are employed by the state. They often have 18 to 30 cases at a time and are frequently unable to conduct a comprehensive investigation of each.