Volunteer Spotlight

Joyce Balint

CASA Volunteer since 2017

Joyce Balint was born and raised in Ohio. After graduating from college at West Virginia University with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology she moved to Cape Cod and worked in a residential facility for autistic children. A year later she took her Volkswagen bug and moved west with a friend and ended up in Colorado. Eventually Joyce left Colorado to attend graduate school at Eastern Washington University where she received her master’s degree in Psychology. Joyce realized that when she lived in Cape Cod that she liked the small town, coastal living experience and tried to replicate that by moving to the North Coast where she took her first job as a school Psychologist.  She began working in Clatsop County in 1986 and is now in her 36^th school year. She is a Northwest Regional Educational Service District employee assigned to Seaside School District. Most of her work is in Special Education and she is always humbled by the intimate glimpses she gets into families and children with challenges.  She also enjoys being a Northwest Educational Association union representative for Clatsop County.

  She raised her son, Aidan, and daughter Aysia here in Clatsop County where she was able to work in the schools that they attended. She also appreciated that they could explore a variety of sports and activities with amazing parent volunteers, without having the pressure to be the best. Joyce loves the natural beauty of the coast and being able to walk to the beach and hear the ocean from her home. She also appreciates that this part of the world is never too hot or too cold. Joyce enjoys ballet, yoga, traveling, hiking, biking, knitting, reading, and sleeping in her spare time.

Originally Joyce thought she would wait until retirement to become a CASA but after she read an article in the newspaper that volunteers were needed at Clatsop CASA she enrolled in a training and jumped right in as a CASA. She has been a CASA for 3 cases all of them girls. Two of the babies she has advocated for were exposed to substances in utero and she was encouraged and relieved to see both reaching developmental milestones on time. The most challenging experience she has had as a CASA was when the placement was being challenged for a little girl that had never lived with another family for the 2 years of her life. It was determined that she would be adopted out of state with a family she had never met.  Joyce alongside other legal parties to the case appealed the decision to move her out of state to a brand-new family and happily, the decision was overturned. This little girl is now being raised in the only home she has ever known, and Joyce played an important part in advocating for her best interest.

Although Joyce knew she would enjoy the work of being a CASA meeting the families and children, she has been moved by the vulnerability of foster parents who open their hearts and expend the kind of energy it takes to raise an infant, knowing that it could be only temporary.

Joyce would recommend being a CASA to anyone interested in supporting children. Joyce says, “Foster Parenting is a higher calling, but I am grateful for this volunteer opportunity, and appreciate the extremely knowledgeable and supportive staff”

Thank you, Joyce for your commitment and care for the children in our community as well as the children you have so caringly advocated for.