Greetings from the Pulaski County, 6th Judicial Court CASA office. I am Marquita Rogers the Community Outreach Coordinator and now your favorite blogger. For those of you who don't know about of want to know more, I will give you my 45 second elevator spill about how awesome our program is.
CASA is a nonprofit organization that trains volunteers from our community to be Court Appointed Special Advocates for children who have been removed from their families because of suspected abuse or neglect. When DHS removes a child from their family, it starts a 12 month legal case. Do to know fault of their own these children and thrown into the system and have a new home, a case worker, attorney and has to sit in a court room full of people making decisions on how their life should continue. What a CASA does is step in and seek the best interest for the child and make sure there voice is heard through this legal process. CASA's are an extra set of eyes and ears for judge, someone without any motives beside the best interest of the child, giving them all the facts.
Now that you know what CASA is let me tell you a little about our program. Our program serves children in Pulaski and Perry Counties only. We are the old CASA program in the state, established in 19… There are currently around 1,100 children in foster care, just in Pulaski County alone; we have 67 volunteers serving only 146 of those children.
Those are some harsh facts that we are working really hard to change. Our goal is that every child that wants a CASA can have one. We want to serve 100% of the children instead of our current 13%. We need the communities help to reach that goal. We need volunteers to step up and become advocates and we need funding. CASA regulations state that for every 30 volunteers we have to have a full time Advocate Supervisor on staff. So the more we grow, the more funds we need to keep our program rolling right along.
So, I bet you are thinking "Wow, this is such a great program, Marquita tell me how I can help!" I would love to tell you that! We are always accepting donations and support. We are currently seeking volunteers that have a heart for children in crisis to be advocates, in-kind donations, discounts on services to help us maintain our program, donations of clothing items and toys that will be given to the children in our program and sponsorships for our fundraising events.
We believe that children shouldn't be defined by the worst thing that ever happens to them, that children should have hope. By supporting CASA it allows hope to change the life of these children and gives them a chance to re-write their stories.
Continue to periodically check in with me and find out what we are up too.
Remember "A happy childhood last forever"
