By Karen F. Walker
In November, the nonprofit organization CASA of Contra Costa County will be holding its annual fundraising gala—“Evening of Promise”—to significantly help with its life-changing, hope-enhancing service to children in foster care.
We’ll share more about the gala at the end of this article, but first, do you know about the work of CASA? Did you know the organization is always in need of vetted volunteers? Did you know that these volunteers repeatedly say that they LOVE what they do, helping to make a vulnerable child’s life better!
What is CASA of Contra Costa County?
Put simply, CASA of Contra Costa County is a nonprofit advocacy program serving foster children. CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates.
Whenever a judge refers a youth to get a CASA advocate assigned to work with them, it triggers a rigorous evaluation process that aims to accurately pair a suitable, highly trained volunteer with a child in foster care. The screening, interview and training take about three months. CASA also provides programs to support abused and neglected children in foster care and to help complete their education.
Dedicated Volunteers are the Heart of CASA
Absolutely essential to the success of the CASA programs are its valiant, selfless and highly trained volunteers. You see, each volunteer must complete an extensive training program that typically takes about 36 hours. That’s good for the volunteers, and good for the youth in foster care.
The children served by CASA have already experienced some degree of serious difficulty; challenges typically beyond their years of understanding—such as neglect, some kind of emotional or other abuse, or something else, perhaps even loss of their parents and no relatives to care for them. Such experiences may have triggered in a child various coping mentality or attitudes just to survive or to not feel emotional or other pain. There may be various elements of mental health issues. You get the idea.
On the other hand, volunteers with a heart and desire to help make young lives better, stronger, more resilient and confident, need to go into any relationship and service with a realistic, practical understanding of how to recognize certain needs. They need to know how to be resilient themselves in navigating various challenges that may arise, in a way that yields a positive experience and outcome for the child. They need to know how to not take things personally, and how to approach CASA youth with realistic—not imagined—expectations and relationship skills.
That said. WOW! What a win for both volunteer and child—not to mention the benefits to society in general—in the long run!
“CASA Volunteer Advocates are sworn officers of the court ,” explains Gordana Zura, communications director of CASA. “They must be 21 or older to apply and share a willingness and ability to commit a minimum of one year, and at least 15 to 20 hours a month to a child or youth in foster care.“
“CASA volunteers include tutors who meet weekly with children and youth in our program,” Zura continues, “providing high quality, consistent and accessible educational support. CASA Tutors share the willingness to commit a minimum of one school year and at least 6 to 12 hours a month to a child or youth in foster care.”
What are the results?
CASA of Contra Costa County has become a trusted court resource for foster youth primarily because of its overall consistently favorable results with the youth assigned to its care.
This is most easily seen in the percent of high school graduation among its foster youth. One hundred percent (100%) of the Contra Costa County youth entrusted to CASA foster care graduate from high school. 100 PERCENT!
This is no small feat.
As noted earlier, some of these children have endured significant trauma. They may need to overcome significant, ingrained habits, strong but not-so-great “role models,” and more. For these kids to be open to learn—and to personally choose—to develop within themselves the self-discipline and sense of self-worth required to earn their high school diploma, that’s a life saved! A life changed for the better, not just for their own life, but for all the lives they will influence in the future!
On top of that, for the CASA children to achieve a 100% high school graduation record compares to around a 67% high school graduation record in this county without CASA volunteer influence. THAT matters!
Evening of Promise
The “Evening of Promise” gala event will be held on Saturday, November 9, from 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm, at the San Ramon Marriott. To learn more, please contact casa@cccocasa.org. To become a gala sponsor, please reach out to Colleen Miller, development director, at coleenmiller@cccocasa.org.
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