Thanks to your generosity, every child referred to our program since 1985 has had a consistent, caring adult in their life – A CASA! Your contributions made it possible for us to send our volunteer child advocates to the National CASA Conference in Seattle, Washington providing them with in-depth training on trauma-informed care and the new child welfare laws. In addition, we have successfully trained eight (8) additional volunteer child advocates, which will help to provide best-interest advocacy to the increasing number of children entering dependency in Kittitas County.
Just this month we celebrated the permanency of two young girls – sisters ages fourteen and sixteen years old. They had spent their entire lives in and out of relative placement and foster care to finally have a forever home. Both these girls had experienced unspeakable neglect, trauma, and abuse. Thanks to donations from supporters like you, we were able to provide a CASA to advocate zealously for these two girls. The eldest sister has decided on extended foster care, providing her services and support to pursue a fine arts degree. She reported in court, “I didn’t think I would live to be 18.” Both girls remain living together, successful in continuing their education and have a home with family they can trust and love.
We don’t expect these sisters to say thank you, but we can! We are so grateful to have supporters like you making stories like these a possibility for our most vulnerable citizens, the children.
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Each year more than 4,300 children in Washington State and about 33 in Kittitas County experience abuse or neglect, ushering them into the dependency court and foster care systems. A child in foster care, on average, will move into multiple homes and attend multiple schools. All this chaos and inconsistency has long-term effects. As a result, the children are increasingly exposed to child abuse and neglect, parental intimate partner violence at home, and sexual violence.
Court Advocates for Children trains, supports, and promotes volunteer court-appointed special advocates (CASAs) so every child in Kittitas County who has experienced abuse or neglect can be safe, have a permanent home, and have the opportunity to thrive. Over the past 38 years, Court Advocates for Children has served over 2,000 abused and/or neglected children in Kittitas County.
As a non-profit, Court Advocates for Children relies heavily on the support of Kittitas County community organizations and its residents to continue providing best-interest advocacy to our most vulnerable citizens, the children.
With your financial support, we can continue our 38th year of service safeguarding the vulnerable abused, and neglected children in our county by providing:
- A 30-hour core training course and background investigation to qualify individuals as CASAs.
- Continuing education for staff and volunteers about the educational, psychological, and cultural needs of children, chemical dependency, child development, parenting skills, mental health, domestic violence, report writing, and legal updates
- Sufficient staff, office space, and technology to provide ongoing support, consultation, and supervision for volunteers, especially when cases become particularly complicated.
- Reimbursement to volunteers for travel expenses to maintain regular contact with the children they represent and to attend the annual state CASA conference.
A gift of $85 defrays a volunteer advocate’s average travel expenses.
A gift of $136 provides a training manual for one volunteer advocate.
A gift of $250 sends a volunteer to the state CASA continuing education conference in October.
A gift of $736 provides 32+ hours of core training for a new volunteer advocate.
Our goal is to raise $5,000 by September 1st to recruit and train four additional volunteer child advocates so that we can continue providing best-interest advocacy for EVERY child entering dependency in Kittitas County. It takes just a few minutes to donate, and your gift will last a lifetime.
P.S. Abused and neglected children are often silenced by the adults in their lives. You can make their voices heard by contributing to Court Advocates for Children today.