QuestionsCategory: Volunteer ManagementDo you have a policy or practice for avoiding conflicts of interest in CASA supervision of a relative/friend?
Hannah Hinman asked 5 years ago

We are about to train a new CASA in Harney County who is the mom of our CASA supervisor there (Maggie). We have identified a variety of potential conflicts and are most concerned with perception and the comfort of other parties/community partners to bring any concerns to our attention. However, the alternative supervision plan is for me to supervise her from Grant County which has drawbacks and would be a relatively large time burden. We have had similar concerns to a lesser extent with supervision of close friends of staff. Have your programs navigated similar issues? How would you approach this?

Mary Collard replied 5 years ago

Small town = everyone wears many hats. My daughter in law is a CASA but the program manager is her supervisor. I have attended visits with her as a mentor when no one else was available and have also been in CRB, but stated to everyone there my relationship and in what role I was at the time. We do need to clean up our policies which clearly state that when staff are volunteering on own time, that xyz will be supervisor and also list family. I believe when we start overthinking in our rural communities, we will end up with no volunteers.

1 Answers
Renee Buchanan answered 5 years ago

You could create a few check-in points between you and the new CASA to help with 1) perception and 2) avoiding small problems becoming issues. Could you have a standing quarterly call with the CASA to see how things are going, and ensure she feels she could talk to you if there are problems? Would it be useful to let the caseworker/attorney, etc. know that you are interested to know if they have any concerns?
Creating transparency and facilitating everyone feeling they can connect with you for any concerns may alleviate problems. 
You have a tough situation.
 

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