Summer 2010 Newsletter

Contents:

• Program Story- CASA Volunteers help children and families navigate tough cultural and language barriers
  
• Recent Statistics and New Volunteers
  
• Upcoming Events: CASA Superhero Run and the NFL Alumni's Klays for Kids
  
• Open House Schedule
  
• From the Desk of the Executive Director
  
• Improving Outcomes for All Children: Addressing Disproportionality
  
• A Special Thank You
  
• Spring Fundraising Events
  
• Thank you to our recent donors!
  
• Meet 6-month CASA volunteer Quana Green
  
• Volunteer with CASA
   

CASA Volunteers help children and families navigate tough cultural and language barriers

Jasmine, age 7, and Michael, age 2, were placed in foster care—and met their CASA advocate, Sonia—when their young mother’s drug abuse meant she could not care for them.  During visits, Jasmine often asked Sonia about seeing her family again. Meanwhile, Michael was struggling to adjust to his foster home. Sonia quickly located the children’s great aunt and uncle. Meeting them, she discovered they were eager to take the children permanently into their home and knew they would be good caregivers. But when the couple failed a home study visit, Sonia suspected cultural bias might have played a role.

She and the Child Protective Services (CPS) caseworker visited the couple’s home in a low-income neighborhood and discovered home repairs the uncle had been working on had been delayed due to his recent surgery. Sonia and the caseworker discussed the need to complete the repairs and the couple was happy to do so. The family then confided they felt the home study worker had been uneasy in their home and neighborhood. When the great aunt and uncle felt her discomfort they didn’t want to question her judgment or appear uncooperative. Once repairs were made, a second home study was conducted and passed. When the children arrived at their family’s home, Jasmine was elated. While everyone was concerned about how Michael would transition given his behavioral issues, everything went smoothly. His foster father stated it best, “He knows he’s with his family, where he belongs.” 

Eugenia, age 3, and Yvonne, age 1, were removed from their parents’ home when the older girl suffered a head injury while under the care of a babysitter. Their parents, immigrants from Vietnam, had left Eugenia with the sitter so they could look for work and a new home. At the hospital they were unable to explain Eugenia’s injuries and CPS was called in. For a family whose primary language is Vietnamese, communicating with the CPS caseworker, attorney and CASA supervisor about bringing their children home safely proved difficult.

Luckily, CASA was able to find a volunteer interpreter, Marie, to assist on the case. Marie’s presence at visits with the family helped them to build rapport with CASA and open up about key information. Marie learned the parents were concerned about maintaining the children’s cultural and linguistic heritage while they were not in their own home, so CASA helped to place the children with their grandmother. The parents worked hard to prove to the judge that they could provide a safe home to their children, and with the help of CASA and Marie, were able to close the case quickly, welcoming Eugenia and Yvonne back home.

Back to top

So far in 2010, CASA has:

• Served 203 new children
• Closed cases for 147 children
• Advocated for a total of 873 children
  

New Volunteers Recently Sworn-In:

Upcoming CASA Events:

Get your capes, masks and running shoes ready for the

September 19th CASA Superhero Run!

Every child needs a hero, but abused children need superheroes, so CASA is hosting our first Superhero Run complete with runners in their best superhero gear, costume contests, the chance for the little ones to become their own superheroes, and the recognition of CASA’s superheroes - our Volunteer Advocates.

Save the date on September 19th for our 5th annual 5K and Kids’s 1K and get ready to be a hero to our CASA kids!

Visit www.casatravis.org/CASA5K.aspx to register for the race, and create your own fundraising page!

Klays for Kids on October 22nd

The NFL Alumni of Austin Chapter is currently recruiting teams and sponsors for their October 22nd skeet shooting event benefitting CASA. If interested in forming a team or sponsoring this event, please visit the NFL Alumni website.

If you have any questions or are interested in sponsoring a CASA event, please email Events Manager, Callie Langford.

Back to top

From the Desk of the Executive Director

   Returning from the recent National CASA Annual Conference, I have great pride in the strength and innovation of CASA of Travis County. We are national leaders in supporting youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood and advocating for children of parents overcoming addiction. One area where we’ve also made great strides is in building a more diverse and inclusive organization—but there is more we need to do.

The over-representation in the foster care system of children of color, particularly African-American children, relative to their representation in the general population is called “disproportionality.” We are actively addressing the impact of disproportionality in our community by:

1) building relationships with new and varied community partners

2) targeting media and volunteer recruitment efforts toward the African-American and Hispanic/Latino communities, and

3) training our staff and volunteers to be culturally sensitive and to help the children we serve to have a healthy sense of their own racial and ethnic identities.

Currently, of the 1,000 children we help, 39% are Hispanic/Latino, 29% are African-American, 15% are Caucasian, 8% are Multi-racial and 9% are Other/Unspecified. If our mission is to advocate for all children in courts, school and our community—then it’s our job to strive to understand all children’s stories, values, and differences. - Laura D. Wolf

  Back to top

Improving Outcomes for All Children: Addressing Disproportionality

The disproportionate representation of minority children in child welfare has been a major concern for decades. Nationally, 60% of children in foster care are children of color (Synthesis of Research on Disproportionality in Child Welfare: An Update, 2006). In Texas, African-Americans make up 11.8% of the child population, but represent 27.9% of the children removed from their homes due to abuse and/or neglect and 34.8% of the children awaiting adoption (Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Data Book, 2009). Research has shown no differences in the level of maltreatment of children by any racial or ethnic group.

In Travis County, judges are taking this issue seriously and dedicating resources to examining data to identify areas in the system where disproportionality is most likely to occur. They are also receiving and sharing training on race and equity in the child welfare system. At CASA of Travis County we are already seeing subtle changes in court processes as the judges work to ensure the courts are not making a bad situation even worse due to racial or cultural difference.

CASA is also doing its part, implementing three key initiatives:

We are partnering with the Travis County Model Court, Casey Family Programs, CPS and other stakeholders in the movement to address disproportionality and reduce disparities within the child welfare system.

We created a new staff position of Community Outreach Liaison devoted to expanding outreach and building partnerships, specifically within the African-American and Hispanic/Latino communities.

Most of our staff have completed the cultural competency trainings “Undoing Racism” on the history of racism and “Knowing Who You Are,” a curriculum designed to help professionals and volunteers working with foster youth to develop a healthy sense of racial and ethnic identity. Two of our staff members have been certified to teach the latter training to our volunteers.

Taking a closer look at our system, enhancing our trainings, developing community partners and increasing the diversity of our board, volunteers and staff can only raise the standards in the advocacy we provide for ALL children in Travis County. To learn more, please contact our Community Outreach Liaison, Sonia Kotecha, at 512.459.2272 or via email.

A Special Thank You

We are grateful for help on our recent media campaign from several committed CASA volunteer advocates, Austin Sonic for helping us to acquire ad space and time, Cultural Strategies for assistance in message development and Epic Films for video production. Tara Ates, a volunteer advocate, was selected by KVUE for the Texas Spirit recognition campaign and her message aired repeatedly during news programming in April. Check out the Texas Spirit and other campaign videos!

Spring Fundraising Events

An inspired crowd of people packed the ballrooms at the Four Seasons for the CASAblanca Gala. They helped us celebrate CASA’s 25th anniversary as a powerful voice for children and honor those who founded and have sustained CASA. Guests enjoyed live music, silent and live auctions, casino games and a fantastic meal. This year set records in fundraising. Thank you so much to our Underwriters, Austin Sonic and Debbie and Bryan Holley.

View and purchase Green Tee Photography by Georges Schemagin from the event!

View additional event photography on our Flickr page!

The weather was perfect for the CASA Kids Golf Classic weekend, both at the pre-party at the AT&T Conference Center and at the tournament at The Hills Country Club. Golfers enjoyed the beautiful course and went home with lots of prizes and gifts thanks to our donors. We want to particularly thank our Trophy Sponsors, Austin Sonic and Dr Pepper, our media sponsor, Fox 7, and our pre-party sponsor, Roger Beasley Mazda Auto Group, for their support of this great event!

Enjoy photos from event day!

Back to top

Meet 6-month CASA Volunteer Quana Green

    Family: Quana calls her family a very unique bunch of hilarious and wonderful people. Her parents are from Louisiana, but she and her 3 older siblings were all raised in Austin.

Career: She is a Business Development Manager for Minecor.

Education: Being the free-spirited one in her family, she took college as an opportunity to move out of state for awhile. Looking for cold weather and a big city, she chose Northwestern University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science.

How she became a CASA: While driving one morning, Quana heard a radio interview with CASA representatives about the annual 5K. When they mentioned the great need for CASA volunteers, she decided to get involved. She has always felt a call to give back, and has a particularly strong desire to help out young children in the foster care system.

First case: Quana is very excited to be working on her first case with CASA. After her very first court hearing, she was overwhelmed by the gratitude expressed to her from so many people for being there as a CASA volunteer for the teenager she is working with.

Why she works with CASA: Quana has volunteered all her life and feels that CASA is one of the best volunteer organizations she has ever worked with. In her opinion, not only does CASA have a great mission, but the training, supervision and people she has met are of the highest quality. Quana is a self-proclaimed CASA volunteer for life!

If you are interested in helping a child find a safe, permanent home, please consider training to become a Court Appointed Special Advocate.

Imagine the experience of children who are removed from their parents because the people who should have protected them cannot or will not do so. These children find themselves in a world filled with social workers, lawyers, judges, and courtrooms where life-altering decisions are made on their behalf, while they remain voiceless. A CASA volunteer is a court appointed, trained and committed adult who stands by their side, watches over their case and advocates for their best interest.

A CASA volunteer ensures that these children remain a priority in an overburdened legal and social service system. You may be the only guiding presence involved from beginning to end during a child’s case. For these children, you will be the difference between instability and permanence, insecurity and learning to trust, invisibility and being made a priority.

We hope you decide to join our family of volunteers, everyday people, who are committed to improving abused children's lives. It is easier than you think.

To learn more about becoming a CASA volunteer visit our Volunteer Page or contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Melia Graber, at 459-2272 or via email. 

Back to top