CASA focuses on supporting families during National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Special to Beneath the Surface News
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and CASA for the Cross Timbers Area is raising awareness of the need for more dedicated members of the community to become volunteers and help end child abuse and neglects.
CASA volunteers, or court appointed special advocates, are everyday people from all walks of life who are specially trained to advocate for children in foster care and provide a consistent, reliable adult presence for them during a difficult time in their life.
“Our volunteers’ first priority is to keep families together whenever safe and possible,” said Mindy Wooley, executive director of CASA for the Cross Timbers Area. “Foster care is only a temporary solution to the problems at hand. We need to create long term support networks that work to care for families, make reunification a possibility, and help break the cycle for the next generation.”
CASA volunteers are assigned to one child or sibling group to advocate for their best interest in court, in school and in other settings.
Locally, CASA for the Cross Timbers Area served 152 children in the foster care system in Bosque, Eastland, Erath, and Hamilton counties in fiscal year 2021. This April, consider making a difference by becoming a CASA volunteer.
“We always hope for the day when CASA, foster care and a national month dedicated to child abuse prevention are no longer needed because all children are growing up safe, secure and supported with their families,” said Wooley. “Until then, we will continue to seek more members of the community to join our growing movement so that we can provide a CASA volunteer for every child who needs one.”
If you see child abuse, report it to 1-800-252-5400 or go to www.txabusehotline.org.
If a child’s life is in danger, call 911.
For more information on CASA, visit www.casacta.org/volunteer/.
