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Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)
Right here in our community, there are abused annd neglected children who live in the shadows of our lives. She may be the little girl in your son's kindergarten class who had to move homes and change schools three or four times in the last year. He may be the lonely child at the park who doesn't join the game.
The foster care and child welfare system is full of compassionate lawyers, judges, social workers, and foster families, but according to recent statistics, each year more than 660,000 chilren are palced in foster care nationally. This intense need can strain the system to the point where they are simply unable to protect the rights of each child.
So the little girl who has already suffered in an abusive home enters the foster care system, which places her in three or four different homes in just a few months. Or the two siblings who lost their mother to incarceration are spilt up and live on different sides of the same country.
This isn't a problem; it is nothing short of a violation of their human rights. A child cannot defend his or her own rights, but a CASA volunteer can!
CASA of Wise and Jack Counties is part of a national nonprofit organization which trains nad supportsvolunteers - people like you and me - to speak and act as advocates for the best interests of abused nad neglected children. They are trained to work within the child welfare and family court systems and are appointed by judges to individual cases. With the help of a CASA volunteer, a child is half as likely to languish in the foster care system, and that much more likely to find a safe and permanent home.
But today only 36% of the children in need have access to a CASA volunteer. That's nearly 400,000 children who do not have that advocate. We are dedicated to ensuring that every child in foster care and child welfare has a qualified CASA volunteer looking out for their best interests. To do this, we need to more than double the current amount of CASA volunteers in Wise and Jack Counties.
Every child has the right top thrive. To be treated with dignity, and to live in a safe. loving home. Every child deserves a fighting chance. Every child needs a hero, but these children need a Super hero.