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July 2020: News, Events, and Opportunities for CASA Volunteers
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Letter from CASA Executive Director Angela Rose
Happy July! I hope you all have found interesting and relaxing ways to enjoy the summer months. My family just returned from a week-long camping trip in the mountains and it was wonderful. We hiked up by Maroon Bells and I have to say it was stunning!
As we turn the corner and start thinking about what the approaching school year will look like, I want to thank each and every one of you for sticking by the vulnerable children of the Pikes Peak Region. Their lives were already in limbo before the pandemic, and now their chaos is even more difficult to navigate.
You probably have heard about how calls to the Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline dropped as a result of families isolating during quarantine. However, what many people might not know is that despite the calls being down, child abuse arrests have been up a significant 22% compared to the same time period last year. This means that the abuse is worse than ever. In addition, the number of children that need a CASA has grown from an average of 20 children per month to 49 children per month. The need for CASA, while always huge, is substantial right now.
If you have friends or family members who have expressed interest in becoming a CASA volunteer themselves, we need them now! For the convenience of all, we have a full calendar of upcoming
virtual volunteer information sessions as well as an online training format which we will be using from now until at least November.
In addition to having conversations about volunteer opportunities with those in your life, we encourage you to also share with us any churches, civic groups, clubs, or organizations you are a member of that might be interested in having a CASA ambassador speak about the different ways their members can help children in our community. If you have any groups you'd like to share with us, please email our Communications Manager, Keri Kahn at
[email protected].
Feedback, ideas, or recommendations are always welcome and I love hearing from our amazing volunteers. Please email me any time at
[email protected]. Thank you for all that you do!
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Gear up for school with backpacks, supplies, & shoes!
FO
R TEENS: Since CASA is unable to hold its annual Back to School Party this year, teens in foster care may pick out the backpack they would like online. Backpacks will be filled with school supplies and can be picked up at the CASA office between July 23 and July 31. To have your CASA teen select a backpack, please
click here and follow th
e instructions at the top of the page. Details on pick-up will be sent closer to July 23.
To be eligible to receive a backpack the teen must be ages 13-18, enrolled in school this fall, and have an open D&N case through El Paso or Teller Counties. A CASA Advocate is not required. One teen per order form, please.
FOR KIDS THROUGH AGE 12:
The Kid's Closet will have backpacks, school supplies, and shoes available for advocates to pick out July 27-31 for the kids on their cases up to age 12 who are enrolled in school for the fall semester. Please come prepared with colors that your kid(s) like as well as shoe size. One backpack and one pair of shoes per youth.
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Milton Foster Children's Fund
HAPPENINGS
Please note that all virtual teen classes have been postponed until we can hold them in person, but you can still shop at The Hanger! Make sure you schedule your teens to shop at The Hanger.
Sign up for a time here.
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Business Partner Spotlight: Vanguard Skin Specialists
"As a refugee, I was a child without a country... a child without a home," says Dr. Vinh Chung, a Colorado Springs dermatologist and Mohs surgeon who at age three fled post-war Vietnam in a treacherous family boat journey that eventually landed him in the United States.
Dr. Chung knows that his childhood - riddled with challenges and barriers - is comparable to what is faced by the foster children CASA serves. But as a refugee child growing up in Arkansas, he was met with the kindness and compassion needed for him to reach his full potential.
Click here to read about the Chung family and learn why their dermatology practice, Vanguard Skin Specialists, is a business partner of CASA of the Pikes Peak Region.
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You can now link your King Soopers card to CASA!
Just go to the King Soopers website and log in to your King Soopers account. Once you are logged in, look on the left side of the page and click on "Community Awards." Now search for "CASA of the Pikes Peak Region" and click the "Enroll" button. This will enroll your King Soopers account into the Community Rewards Program and you will now earn money for CASA each time you use your loyalty card!
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Inclusion Corner: Resources for addressing racism
Recent events have caused everyone across the CASA network to reflect upon and identify more proactive ways to address racism, injustices, diversity, equity, engagement and inclusion. National CASA is offering resources to help all of us grow and we are excited to share some of them with you here:
READ:
How to Be an Antiracist is a memoir by Ibram X. Kendi in which he weaves together an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science--
including the story of his own awakening to antiracism
--bringing it all together in a cogent, accessible form. He
begins by helping us rethink our most deeply held, if implicit, beliefs and our most intimate personal relationships
and reexamines the policies and larger social arrangements we support.
How to Be an Antiracist
promises to
become an essential book for anyone who wants to go beyond an awareness of racism to t
he next step of
contributing to the formation of a truly just and equitable society.
LISTEN: 1619 is an audio series from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. Project creator and host Nikole Hannah-Jones was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for the 1619 Project.
WATCH: Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools is a documentary by Monique W. Morris in which she chronicles the experiences of black girls across the country whose intricate lives are misunderstood, highly judged-by teachers, administrators, and the justice system-and degraded by the very institutions charged with helping them flourish. Called "compelling" and "thought-provoking" by Kirkus Reviews, Pushout exposes a world of confined potential and supports the rising movement to challenge the policies, practices, and cultural illiteracy that push countless students out of school and into unhealthy, unstable, and often unsafe futures.
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