The CASA Program of St. Joseph County
The Advocate
2nd Quarter 2024
CASA Demographics to date for 2024:
- Number of Children Served to Date: 450
- Number of Children on the Waiting List: 186
- Number of CASA Staff Full-Time: 13
- Number of CASA Staff Part-Time: 2
- Number of Active Volunteers to Date: 99
CASA Makes a Difference
Congratulations to the Winter CASA Training Graduates!
Sign up for Pre-Service Training and learn what it takes to become an advocate for children in the child welfare system. Make a difference in your community and change the lives of children who need a voice.
To fill out a volunteer application visit:
https://in-stjoseph.evintosolutions.com/VolunteerApplication
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April is
child abuse prevention month
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention child abuse and neglect are common.
1 in 7 children have experienced abuse or neglect in the past year in the United States.
* This is likely an underestimate because many cases are unreported.
In 2020, 1,750 children died of abuse and neglect in the United States.
help bring awareness to child abuse
Join us
at 12:00 pm on April 1, 2024 to “plant” our pinwheel garden in front of the JJC!
What is a Pinwheel Garden?
Pinwheel gardens promote awareness for child abuse during the month of April and are a part of Prevent Child Abuse’s National Campaign. This is a visual commitment from organizations and individuals, and the greater community to support families and keep children safe.
Pinwheels: A Symbol of Prevention
Pinwheels represent playfulness and the joys of being a child. As a symbol for Prevent Child Abuse, pinwheels convey a message that every child deserves to be raised in a healthy, safe, and nurturing environment.
child abuse prevention month
Wear Blue on Friday, April 5, 2024, to bring awareness to child abuse!
Post pictures on your social media and tag our accounts!
Use the hashtags #wearblueday2024 #childabuseawareness
#preventchildabuse
Family & Children’s Center is proud to host Antwone Fisher in South Bend for their new Spotlight dinner event graciously presented by the Leep Family.
Antwon was born in an Ohio prision to a teenage mother and ended up living alone in a homeless shelter on the streets as a young adult. After serving in the United States Navy, Antwone set out on a path of healing. earning numerous accolades as an active duty member. He is the author of “Finding Fish” a New York Times bestseller.
** Attention CASA volunteers! If you have not seen our email, this event was changed to a fundraising event. Tickets are now $150.00 per person and significantly more if you want to purchase a table. If you signed up for a ticket, we regret to inform you that we no longer have those tickets available to us. **
We will still be reading “Finding Fish” for our next book club meeting.
- April 26, 2024: Safe at Home Night
- Four Winds Field
Roofsit Website
PDF
Get Tickets
National Volunteer Week April 21-27, 2024
CASA
| kah-sah | - noun
- An everyday citizen who makes an extraordinary impact
- The voice of a child in foster care
- A trusted adult who demonstrates consistency
- A hero
Volunteer Appreciation Event!
When: Friday, April 26
Where: Juvenile Justice Center parking lot
Volunteers, check your CASA email for details about this event!
Volunteer Week Awards will be announced on our Social Media Accounts!
THE CATEGORIES ARE:
Multis and Lifers award
Not a Novice Award
O
R
ptima
C
oyal
ourt
Tough cookie award
Fierce Advocate Award
celebrating 30 years of advocacy
An Interview with Denise R., a CASA volunteer in St. Joseph County since 1994.
Quick Facts About Denise:
- Denise is a South Bend native
- She worked at AM General for thirty years before she retired
- She has 5 children, 15 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren
- Two of her daughters were also CASA volunteers.
- A few years ago, Denise discovered that one of her grand-daughters is friends with a child from the first case she ever received. (She really did impact the children in her community!)
- Denise likes to read, her favorite author is Cathy Glass, a former social worker from the UK who writes books about her experience in the field
Denise (right) and one of her daughters at her daughter’s CASA volunteer swearing in ceremony.
Best Part of Being a CASA Volunteer:
When advocating for children in foster care, I get a sense of self-worth. I’m doing something to help these children. I love that I am always learning something new with each case. I also enjoy the people I’ve met and the relationships that I’ve built over my thirty years as a volunteer. It takes a village to raise these kids. I have some families that have stayed in touch with me after their case closed.
Least favorite Part of Being a CASA Volunteer:
Testifying in Termination of Parental Rights Trials, but I’ve only done it a few times.
Support of the CASA Program:
I have gone on leave twice during my time as a volunteer. Once was after the passing of my late husband, and the second time was due to some medical issues. I thank God for my volunteer supervisor Julie. She was there for me in those times going above and beyond the call of duty. When I was recovering from my medical issues, Julie called me to tell me she was going to visit my CASA kids. She asked if I’d like to meet her there as I was looking to help with my case again. I told her I couldn’t drive but wished I could go. Julie came to my home, picked me up, and took me to visit my CASA kids with her. She didn’t have to do that, but she did. I knew that while I was out on leave, my CASA kids were still getting the best care and advocacy from Julie. The transition during my leave and subsequent return was seamless.
Why have you continued to Volunteer after all these years?
It can be hard but very rewarding. After a case closes, you can have different feelings and emotions. With some you know you made an impact, with others you wonder if you did enough. My late husband used to sometimes ask me why I continued to volunteer. I told him I did it because these children need an advocate. If I don’t do it, who else will?
Thank you for your dedication to CASA’s mission!
13th is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Ava DuVernay. The film explores the prison-industrial complex, and the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States"; it is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction of a crime. This allowed for a constitutional loophole in which black Americans became criminalized and faced involuntary servitude in the form of penal labor.
DuVernay contends that slavery has been perpetuated since the end of the American Civil War through criminalizing behavior and enabling police to arrest poor freedmen and force them to work for the state under convict leasing; suppression of African Americans by disenfranchisement, lynchings, and Jim Crow; politicians declaring a war on drugs that weighs more heavily on minority communities and, by the late 20th century, mass incarceration affecting communities of color, especially American descendants of slavery, in the United States. She examines the prison-industrial complex and the emerging detention-industrial complex, discussing how much money is being made by corporations from such incarcerations.
The memoir of Antwone Fisher's miraculous journey from abandonment and abuse to liberation, manhood, and extraordinary success. "A striking and original story of the journey from troubled childhood to self-aware.”
Baby Boy Fisher--as he was documented in his child welfare caseworkers' reports--was raised in institutions from the moment of his birth in prison to a single mother. After beginning his life in an orphanage, Antwone was placed in a temporary foster home until, around age two, he was transferred to a second foster home. It was there, over the next thirteen years, that he endured emotional abandonment and physical abuse. Removed from this foster home not long before his sixteenth birthday, Antwone found fleeting refuge in a boys' reform school but was soon thrust into the nightmare of homelessness.
Though convinced he was unwanted and unworthy, Fish, as he came to be known, refused to allow his spirit to be broken. Instead, he became determined to raise himself, to listen to social workers and teachers who intervened on his behalf, and to nurture a romantic heart along with a scathing sense of humor and a wondrous imagination--all of which sustained him with big dreams of a better day. Fatefully, just as Antwone's life on the streets hit rock bottom, he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he remained for the next eleven years. During that time, Fish became a man of the world, raised by the Navy family he created for himself.
Finding Fish shows how, out of this unlikely mix of deprivation and hope, an artist was born--first as the child who painted the feelings his words dared not speak, then as a poet and storyteller who would eventually become one of Hollywood's most well-paid, sought-after screenwriters. But before he ascends those lofty steps, Antwone's story takes us from the Navy to his jobs as a federal correctional officer and then a security guard at Sony Pictures in Hollywood. In its climactic conclusion, the mystery of his identity is finally unraveled as Antwone returns to Cleveland to locate his mother's and father's surviving family members.
CASA Book Club
When: April 29, 2024, at 6:30pm
Where: South Bend Chocolate Café -
122 S Michigan St, South Bend
What to Read: Finding Fish
by Antwone Fisher
Please join us and bring a friend! This event is open to both CASA Volunteers and those interested in learning more about the program!
Volunteer Birthdays
Volunteer Birthdays
April
4/21
Brian G.
4/24
Marty O.
4/27
Walt R.
May
June
5/21
Jenny M.
5/29
Terry P.
5/8
Sue. S
5/11
Christina B-T.
5/14
Debbie J.
6/14
Mary G.
6/17
Kristin S.
6/19
Monica L.
6/24
Valerie V.
6/28
Angie W.
6/29
Deb G.
volunteer
anniversaries
April
May
8 years
- Walt R.
1 Year
- Ann D.
- Laura P.
- Suzanne W.
- Valerie V.
9 years
- Marty O.
30 years
- Denise R.
11 years
- Bob M.
June
2 year
- Kelly R.
3 years
- Jenny B.
- Amanda G-K.
- Corky S.
- Lou Ann W.
- Colleen V.
- Erin H.
4 years
- Margaret L.
- Tammy M.
- David G.
- Deb G.
5 years
- Megan E.
6 years
- Barb R.
- Mary Anne P.
- Kelly T-F.
22 YEARS
- Brian G.
Staff Birthdays
May
Kim M. - 5/6
Becca H. - 5/17
Kennedy S. - 5/24
June
Amanda B. - 6/21
April
June
10 years
Julie S. - 4/22
21 years
Brenda M. - 4/14
10 years
Julie S. - 4/22
21 years
Brenda M. - 4/14
1 year
Bianca P. - 6/5
5 Years
Myles R. - 6/21
1 year
Bianca P. - 6/5
5 Years
Myles R. - 6/21
2024 Holiday Schedule
The CASA Office will be closed on the following dates:
- March 29, 2024, in observance of Good Friday
- May 7, 2024, for Primary Election Day
- May 27, 2024, in observance of Memorial Day
- June 19, 2024, in observance of Juneteeth
"Prevent Child Abuse America recognizes that all community members have a role in ensuring children have positive experiences and families have the resources they need when they need them, well before they are in crisis. The theme of this year’s awareness and impact campaign that we lead in partnership with our national network of state chapters, is “Building Together: Prevention in Partnership.”
Child abuse and neglect are preventable, and all communities benefit when children and families are well supported. "
To learn more visit : https://preventchildabuse.org/
"The Children's Bureau's National Foster Care Month campaign recognizes the important role that members from all parts of child welfare play in supporting children, youth, and families. This year’s theme, “Strengthening Minds. Uplifting Families.” highlights the need to take a holistic and culturally responsive approach to supporting the mental health needs of those involved with child welfare."
To learn more visit : https://www.childwelfare.gov/fostercaremonth/
"National Reunification Month is celebrated each June in recognition of the people whose hard work helps keep families together.
Safely reuniting children with their families is the ultimate goal of foster care, and it can be achieved only through the partnership of dedicated parents, foster caregivers and caseworkers.
National Reunification Month was established in 2010 by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law and partners."
To learn more visit : https://www.in.gov/dcs/foster-care/national-reunification-month/
Thank you for your continued support of the CASA Program of St. Joseph County!
Contact us
By Phone:
574-233-CASA (2272)
By Email: casa@jjconline.org
