Remembering an Advocate

This past spring, ProKids lost a longtime advocate and partner in our mission: Jody Coaston, whose fight for victims of abuse spanned from her start as a CASA Volunteer in 1997 to her work as a case manager at Lighthouse Youth Services. Jody was a mentor, a founding member of ProKids’ Steps to Peace (or STOP) Program, and a truly beloved community member. We recently sat down with Kathy King, our strategic resource advisor and longtime STOP leader, to remember her.

Kathy joined our Advocacy Team three years after Jody picked up her first case. In Jody, she met a CASA who was kind, patient, and a good listener — someone with a firm grasp on the role of a CASA and someone Kathy herself could learn from.

Jody approached both kids and parties to cases with a calmness that inspired trust. Kathy recalls that “she didn’t strike fear in anyone’s hearts … wasn’t threatening at all.”

“It’s a huge gift when someone’s like that because you can just get through to people that maybe you wouldn’t get through to otherwise,” Kathy said.

But Jody was also sarcastic, putting a “wicked” sense of humor to work when connecting to others — from ProKids teens to system professionals.

Even in the toughest cases, many of which revolved around domestic and intimate partner violence, her instincts as an advocate and her general outlook were exemplary. Soon, Jody was acting as a mentor to her fellow CASAs. And as a natural extension of their work together, Kathy was embarking on the creation of ProKids’ STOP Program (a program that to this day offers consultation and training to the volunteers and professionals advocating for children exposed to family violence).

By 2003, ProKids and its partners had found significant gaps in services available to the kids who’d witnessed this violence. Kathy tapped Jody to help conduct research, and she became instrumental in understanding best practices and building a curriculum to inform ProKids and its partners.

Jody helped develop behavioral tools to be used with children, victims, and alleged perpetrators, and she used her background as an educator to deliver her learnings to others. In 2006, she was honored for her work and named as ProKids’ Volunteer of the Year.

When Jody went on to become a case manager with Lighthouse Youth Services, Kathy and Jody remained close, sharing learnings, resources, and discussing ways to improve all children’s outcomes.

ProKids is grateful for that closeness — and for the way she shared our mission so passionately. She will be remembered for her intellect, her humor, and of course, for connections fostered with ProKids children, families, and community members.