Isabel Monterossa’s dedication helped a young girl overcome language barriers and find stability, inspiring her mission to recruit more bilingual advocates.
“I saw Facebook posts about local CASAs and became interested in working with children in the system. I felt it would be a way for me to put my skills to good use.” Said CASA Isabel Monterossa.
Once she was trained, Isabel was asked to take on the case of a 17-year-old girl from Puerto Rico whose mother sent her to live with her father. The father took her to a shelter and never returned
“She was attending a local high school that had very limited resources for language and no transportation so she had to walk or take public transportation which posed a lot of roadblocks and some bullying came into play - mostly because of the language barrier.”
“I was able to help get her enrolled into Commonwealth Charter Academy which is a very good online learning platform that’s been around since before the pandemic. It has an ESL component and was exactly what she needed,” Monterrosa says. “I saw her at the end of last year and her language was much better. She’s excelling in classes and her foster parents have gotten permanent custody. That was a good introduction case for me to learn all of the systems”
“We all hear about children in the foster care system and some of the horror stories that have occurred. We think of how we can help, and for me, this is like planting a seed. Although I don’t have grandchildren yet, I can see it in somebody else. I hope that I can leave an impact on these children.”
“There will be more and more children, and we need more people with language abilities,” she says. “Making people aware of what CASA actually is in everyday places is important. My goal is to work with my supervisor and find more Latina and Spanish-speaking volunteers to help with that.”
