New Henrico CASA volunteers. (Contributed photo) Ten new volunteers were sworn in as members of Henrico Court Appointed Special Advocates Oct. 11 by Stacy E. Lee, presiding judge in Henrico County’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. The volunteers spent six weeks donating 40 hours to participate in Henrico CASA’s comprehensive training. As CASAs, each volunteer
Fatima Smith, an advocate for victims of sexual abuse, remembers something important her mother once told her.
“My mom told me an obnoxious amount of times, ‘if someone, anyone touches you or hurts you, tell me. I don’t care if it’s your father, uncle, just tell me.”
But Smith says that after her cheerleading coach used house keys she forgot in his car to enter her home, then her room where she awoke to him touching her, she “didn’t say anything for almost a year later.” “I loved cheerleading. I loved my coach. This bad thing happened,” she recalls. “But I didn’t know if I really wanted to say anything.”