Lone Star CASA celebrates National Social Work Month

Information sessions, volunteer training coming

(ROCKWALL, TX – March 9, 2016) As part of March’s National Social Work Month celebration, Lone Star CASA recognizes and thanks those who devote their lives to bettering the lives of others. Social workers strive to build a stronger community for all people, and CASA is a proud partner in the effort to secure a brighter future for children in the foster care system.

CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates®) programs collaborate with the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), Child Protective Services (CPS) and other key advocates in the child welfare system to ensure that children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect are placed in safe, permanent homes as quickly as possible.

“While social work covers a variety of areas, we are especially appreciative of those in the field who have been our partners in protecting abused and neglected children in the child welfare system,” said Lucille Bell, executive director of Lone Star CASA.

CASA volunteers are appointed to advocate for children’s best interests in court. They come from all walks of life and backgrounds, but they all have one thing in common – a passion for helping children. They get to know the child personally and speak with everyone involved in the child’s life so that they can make well-informed and holistic placement recommendations to the court. Lone Star CASA is one of the 71 CASA programs in Texas that recruit, screen and train these volunteers.

“CASA and CPS share a common goal – to protect the unprotected,” said Bell. “We all work to ensure that these vulnerable children’s needs are met while they are in foster care, and that they are placed in loving homes.”

More than 47,000 Texas children were in the child welfare system in 2015. A little more than half of these children had a CASA volunteer to advocate for their best interests.

When possible, CASA volunteers advocate for reunification with the child’s immediate family, said Bell, but when reunification is not an option, they work with CPS to find the child a caring adoptive home.

“We dream of a day when CASA is no longer needed because every child has the forever home they deserve,” said Bell. “But until then, Lone Star CASA will continue to work tirelessly with CPS to create a better future for children in the child welfare system.”

Last year, 66 Lone Star CASA volunteers served 154 children in the child welfare system in Kaufman and Rockwall counties, but there are still children who need a volunteer to advocate for their best interests. Consider making a difference for these children by becoming a CASA volunteer.

For more information, visit www.BecomeaCASA.org or www.lonestarcasa.org. Information sessions are scheduled for March 21, March 22 and March 24. Call 972-772-5858 for more information. A new volunteer training session begins in May.

Submitted by Vickie Nettleton, Lone Star CASA Program Director/Trainer.

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