Advocate Spotlight: Logan Yeakel

Meet Logan Yeakel, the January Advocate Spotlight for 2022. Logan began his journey as an advocate for CASA of Luzerne County in May of 2021, however this was not his first volunteer experience. He had previously volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters in San Diego, CA.

Logan relocated back to Pennsylvania and is currently in his senior year of college but was inspired to look up CASA of Luzerne County after hearing about it the organization and its mission while in California.

He decided to take the step to become an advocate because he has an understanding that there are people in his community who need help and only a limited number of people make themselves available as volunteers. He wanted to do his part for his “tribe” so-to speak.

Logan advocated for a sibling group and his most memorable experience on the case was seeing the joy on their faces when they were reunified with their parents. The most positive outcome was the return of trust in adults from the children.

Logan would like anyone considering becoming a CASA advocate to just do it! It is worth it to bear witness to a positive impact on your local community. He also wishes more people realize how many children in the Luzerne County foster system could really benefit from a CASA and how few volunteers there actually are.

The most important aspect of advocating for Logan is making sure the children in his community have a voice.

We are grateful to Logan for his commitment to her advocacy. If you’d like to make a difference in the life of a child in the way Logan has, we invite you to join us for an info session to learn more about advocacy and what it means to be a CASA.

Logan is from Allentown, PA. He is the parent of a son and a daughter and a German Shepard.

A Year in Review

As we look forward to 2022, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on 2021. This past year has been a year of great change for CASA of Luzerne County.

A change in leadership and staffing has brought me to the Executive Director position, serving a population of youth I am very passionate about in my county of origin. I could not be more grateful to be working in an organization that has such a solid and respected footprint in the community, giving a voice to the children in the dependency court system in Luzerne County. The staff , the volunteer advocates and the Board of Directors are the most mission driven group I could hope to work with.

Despite the adversity the community has experienced due to the pandemic CASA of Luzerne County has been able to accomplish amazing things by making adjustments to a more virtual world. The leadership and staff at CASA of Luzerne County understood that child welfare cases don’t push pause for any reason and the children continued to need advocates to represent them.

CASA of Luzerne County virtually trained and swore in 16 new advocates in 2021, currently has 54 active advocates who are representing 79 children in the child dependency system of Luzerne County.

CASA of Luzerne County provides best-interest advocacy for children as reflected in the guiding principles which recognize the importance of family preservation and reunification, equity, diversity, inclusion and collaboration. As a result of the advocacy provided this year, 22 children in our program received permanency; of those 22 children 12 were reunified with their parent or caregiver.

CASA of Luzerne County will continue to dedicate ourselves to the mission of recruiting, training, and supporting community volunteers to serve as the voice of abused and neglected children in the Luzerne County dependency court system so that these children will be safe, secure and given the opportunity to thrive.

Our goals for 2022 are to expand our reach of recruiting advocates to areas of Luzerne County that are underrepresented and further educate the citizens of Luzerne County on the importance of advocating for the children in their communities. Recruit CASA’s for the children who are currently on our waiting list and in need of a voice. And continue to work with the amazing community partners who support CASA of Luzerne County and expand and grow those roots with new partners.

Please consider making a monetary donation to CASA of Luzerne County so we can continue to our mission to give a voice to the 550 children currently in the Luzerne County dependency court system.

Or become a volunteer CASA advocate and be that voice. There is no other volunteer experience that gives so much to a child in your community and gives you so much back in return.

Sincerely,

Mary Kay Pivovarnik

Executive Director

CASA of Luzerne County