News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Crossville’s Court Appointed Special Advocates office celebrating the one year anniversary of its expansion to Cumberland and areas east.
Program Coordinator Bonita Harger said they are part of a network with other offices in five nearby counties making it the largest CASA organization in Tennessee. Harger said they all assist one another in their work and help each other raise funds.
“We’ve had just a tremendous amount of support that has been hard to get in the past,” Harger said. “But we just, the support and the help that we have, if we have a problem we can go to each other where we can’t go to anyone else because they don’t understand what we do and it’s just amazing.”
Harger said the expansion has allowed the program in Crossville to grow larger and better support local children. Harger said they merged with CASA of the Tennessee Valley because they had grown as much as they could within UCHRA.
“I just got through here in Cumberland training four new advocates,” Harger said. “Which will give Cumberland ten active advocates now to support these children.”
Harger said their unified effort has been successful because they were all familiar with the overarching CASA program before they merged.
“The chamber of commerce is doing the ribbon cutting and we will have a brunch,” Harger said. “We’ll introduce ourselves to the community for people that don’t understand or know who we are.”
Harger said they will also have a couple drawings and extra time to interact with the public so they can spread the word about their mission. The event takes place on Wednesday, October 16 at 10:00am.
