In the US, most states have programs that assign volunteer advocates to children and youth in the foster care system (CASA and GAL are the acronyms).
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Erin Kissanereplied to Erin Kissane last edited by [email protected]
As you can probably imagine, this work attracts a whole lot of well-intentioned straight white retired women with money+time on their hands, which…it is what it is, culturally and politically. None of this SHOULD be volunteer work, but the professional social worker I work with has literally dozens of cases. The needs are immediate.
So I will say that if you could use a way to make a child or teenager’s life a little safer and more stable in an increasingly scary time, this is a way to do that.
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(Happy to talk to anyone about this anytime, DM away.)
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@kissane Chiming in to say for anyone reading that as a foster parent I have seen first hand that CASA reps are SOOOOO important
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Erin Kissanereplied to Matthew Lyon last edited by [email protected]
@mattly God, there are so many hair-raising stories about this stuff. I’m very glad it looks like it’s going to work out for your friend and their kid.
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I will stop fixing typos now sorry
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Super kind of you, Erin, to donate your time to such a worthy cause. As a parent who adopted my high-needs child out of the foster system, I know first-hand of the program. I'm glad it has been rewarding for you.
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@dangoodin It’s less kindness and more compulsion tbh! We have to help each other. There is just no other way.
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@kissane I will never stop fixing typos. Solidarity.
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Thank you for your service just the same.
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@kissane Great, I’m in! Just signed up for an information session to learn more about how to do this. Thank you for sharing!
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Please holler if you ever want to talk about it, especially if you get into the training and are like…YIKES, SEEMS INTENSE. Our local org has been aces at making good matches between CASAs and kids/cases.
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@dangoodin Thank you for bringing that kid into the center of your life
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@kissane Ex-foster parent here. Can confirm need. And the longer you can stay with a kid as an advocate -- preferably over several foster placements -- the better it is.
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@kissane I'm *really* glad you posted this, I had never heard of this before. I've thought about fostering to adopt someday if I ever want and think I'm capable of taking care of a child, and this sounds like an amazing middle ground if I'm not able to get there with respect to mental health and my own ability to take care of myself.
I'm not able to do this today, but I really aspire to be able to someday
What does w/r/t kids mean here? I didn't see any clues on the site
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@CrisColor Yes! I think this is an amazing middle path for those of us who can't be, foster parents because of health or stability or already having a house full of dependents or any of those things, but who really want to help those kids.
And sorry, w/r/t" is just an abbreviation for "with regard to" because I was running out of characters! It might be obsolete these days.
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I am a retired, white lady with time on my hands, and yeah, even a little extra bit of money because my husband has a great job. You shame me. I already feel unwelcome in organizing spaces. Thanks a lot.
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@FranceskaMann By "it is what it is," I mean exactly that, including both progressive women and the Trump-supporting majority.
Not every child or family that gets sucked into the foster care system will mesh well with the *average political positions and cultural literacies* of this demographic. We need a diversity of advocates, including people who don't think of themselves as part of the volunteer class.
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@FranceskaMann
But given that you read this as "shame" and responded to a call for volunteers by emphasizing your personal injury, I'm going to say one more thing I have learned as a white cis woman, which is that antifragility work on yourself opens up a lot of energy for movement work.People I respect yell about white cis women (me! oh no!) *all the time* because a lot of white cis women are, frankly, retrograde and oppressive assholes. But my cause is not with "white cis women," so
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