Monday, September 06, 2010
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Monday, September 06, 2010 |
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At CASA our goal is to help our volunteers and community members to better understand the foster care and child welfare system. Without having been through a process yourself, the complexity of things can seem overwhelming. Below are resources that can help you navigate through the system and provide helpful advice on being an effective volunteer, or apathetic community member. (Note: The ** articles open in pdf format)
National CASA -- The website for the National CASA Organization. Information regarding conferences, meetings, and guidelines can be found here.
National CASA Quarterly Publication --National CASA publishes this quarterly magazine to highlight different programs, provide articles, and point readers at resources available to volunteers.
St. Joseph County Probate Court - The CASA Office is located inside of the Thomas N. Fredrick Juvenile Justice Center. We work closely with the clerks, Judges, Magistrates and other staff at the JJC to look out for the best interests of our CASA kids.
Juvenile Justice Bulletin - March 1997- This bulletin deals strictly with CASA Programs.
Articles: Anxiety Disorders among Children and Teens
CNN.com - Leaving abuse can be length, risky process
**Foster youth struggle to find 'home' A recent article in our South Bend Tribune, discussing the effects of foster homes on our youth. This is coupled with a current PBS Series: Aging Out. A follow up comment to the Tribune Article by Lynn Butts: "Being a foster child...period...puts you in a different category. You have nothing that belongs to you basically and you are thrown into a home that you have to adjust to them on top of what you are going thru and still maintain at school and keep your grades up, etc. I was fortunate to have a foster family that allowed me to stay past my graduation as I was still 17 years old and the first foster child in their home to graduate school. I also decided once I turned 18 that I would help out at the foster home by doing my share and continueing to work. I was BLESSED. But I know for sure that foster care can be a job to some but for many they grow attached to the children and will do what they can to see that child succeed. But where was money coming from for me to get on my own, I had a job. I also had goals and dreams I never let go of. Being a foster child is not easy at all. I came with emotional and physical damage. I came with tons and tons and tons of tears. I came with not knowing if I will ever get to see my mom and dad again even though they did not like me or love me. I did not ask to be born but GOD is in control. I agree there needs to be a person in place for foster children from the time they graduate to the time they are 21 or 22 simply because you can be alone. As our schools strive to have mentors, our foster children need mentors just as much. We need to know that someone believes in US, that we are worthy and are loved. I have seen so much in foster homes and along the way you are just a case number in some cases. I know I was, I slept on a air matteress in a room with a divider (in a first foster home I was in) and had nothing I could say was my own. I wanted to stay away from everyone, wondering what I had did that was so bad to deserve getting hit and emotionally put down. I was a CHILD!!! It hurts. I pray that I can make a difference one day for many foster children. I have been there done that and I know I will be a different mother and or mentor to children in need then those parents who have never experienced what it is like to be a foster child, thrown around in the system as though you did not matter. Life is already hard. And here is the kicker folks, I was adopted at birth and then I was in foster care. Talk about rejection, I had it majorly. I will just continue to pray. Just know that not all foster parents think of foster children as cases, there are some foster parents that do really care. Then there are some that don't and need to not be foster parents. My foster mom passed away in 1990 and to this day I mourn her death as she stuck by me thru thick and thin. She believed in me."
**Children, Families, and Foster Care: Analysis and Recommendations --
An analysis of the current state of foster care and a discussion of specific measures for enhancing the accountability of the child welfare system and improving how children and families experience foster care.
A review of the research on the effects of child maltreatment and foster care on child development, and a discussion of what steps can be taken to promote the healthy development of children in foster care.
**Family Reunification --
A discussion of family reunification in the law, in policy, and in practice, and an analysis of family reunification trends in six states.
**Acronyms --
List of Acronyms commonly used in the Child Welfare World.
**Providing Better Opportunities for Older Children in the Child Welfare System --
An analysis of the challenges older children in foster care face and a discussion of promising policies and programs for helping foster youth transition out of foster care and into adulthood.
Books:
I Speak for this Child True Stories of a Child Advocate by Gay Courter
Since 1989, novelist Courter (The Midwife's Advice, LJ 9/1/92) has served as a volunteer Guardian ad Litem, a court-appointed guardian for children involved in custody battles or child abuse cases. She has worked on more than a dozen cases, privy to the children's wishes as she challenged state agencies, caseworkers, foster parents, and courts to seek her charges' "best interests." This book offers to the public her unique, insider's view of child advocacy in America. Through engaging and true stories of several children with abusive parents, Courter suggests that a child's primary need is "a permanent, safe, nurturing environment." She views the legal, bureaucratic, and emotional issues involved through the eyes of the children, vividly recounting their tumultuous placements in foster homes, humiliating court cases, heartbreaking separation from parents, and personal conversations. Her book will interest all who are concerned with the social health of American communities and will be particularly useful to students of law, public administration, and social work.
This book is a part of the CASA library and can be borrowed by coming down and visiting!
Helping Children Cope with Separation and Loss Claudia Jewett Jarratt
A valuable tool for both family members and helping professionals. Here is a compassionate, practical book for any adult who wants to help a child recover from the stages of denial and mourning that can follow the loss of a loved one.
This is a book of warmth and wisdom, a resource for all caregivers to children in time of sorrow. This is a valuable tool in helping children cope with the grief involved in losing their families through foster care, and adoption. This book is a part of the CASA library and can be borrowed by coming down and visiting!
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