Randy Lanham had a guest host accompany him in his filming for “VolunTour Kentucky”, a 12-episode program that will be aired on Kentucky Educational Television (KET) in January 2019. Katie Bouchard, Miss Kentucky 2018, is a college graduate who focused in social work, so Lanham thought Bouchard would be the perfect person to help him host the episode revolving around training to become advocates of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates).
Lanham’s “VolunTour Kentucky” program features a different nonprofit organization every episode, and this episode features a CASA of Ohio Valley volunteer who enters a 30-hour training service program where they listen to a child’s needs and get to know everyone in the child’s life. Each volunteer takes on one case which, on average, takes a year-and-a-half to close. According to the CASA website, volunteers use the information they’ve gathered to let judges and other organizations know what the child needs and where they think their permanent home should be.
Lanham and Bouchard were accompanied by two of CASA of Ohio Valley’s primary advocates — Executive Director Rosemary Conder and CASA Supervisor Kelsey Washburn — who explained what being a CASA advocate would involve and the importance of spreading the word about volunteering for the program.
“I think that even if being a CASA volunteer is not for someone, to be aware that we do have a need in the community and that there are abuse and neglect cases that are happening — I think that really helps the education.” Conder said. “The more educated people are, and the more aware people are about how the system works, the more they can get involved in some fashion.”
Lanham said VolunTour Kentucky, is a production of Volunteer Owensboro, which Lanham co-founded.
“When we reached out to KET and sent them a sample show, they loved the show,” Lanham said. “Now, we’re in the middle of filming 12 episodes, so this is one of the episodes we’re filming today.”
Lanham and Bouchard did a mock-up training episode where Washburn sat with them and taught them the ins and outs of becoming a CASA advocate. A film crew also filmed the duo as they interviewed Family Court judge Julie Gordon on the importance of the CASA organization in family court cases.
“We talked to the state director, the local director — we talked to some volunteers, we talked to some board members. We’re trying to give everybody an overview of CASA and the volunteer opportunities to make everybody more aware of CASA and get people connected,” Lanham said. “We’re filming little spots everywhere. Katie — Miss Kentucky–she agreed to come and kind of co-host the show me.”
