Tuesday, Jul 13, 2021
When disaster strikes in a community, people of faith are often the first to respond.
They are on the front lines of relief efforts: distributing food, water, and emergency supplies, and offering warming shelters in churches. These people don’t work in an official capacity or for any payment or reward. They simply feel compelled to help their fellow community members during devastating times.
Faith communities are one of the single most important resources for children and broken families. That is why CASA wants to partner with this community to provide support for some of the area’s most vulnerable citizens — children in foster care who need caring volunteers to advocate for them during their journey through the child welfare system.
Research shows that children who have experienced trauma are better able to handle their experiences when they are supported and uplifted by adults who care about them. CASA volunteers get to know a child or sibling group in foster care, visit them monthly, communicate with their family of origin and foster family, advocate for their educational and medical needs, and make recommendations to the judge on their case.
We have an overwhelming need for additional volunteers in Muskogee, Wagoner, McIntosh and Sequoyah counties and are asking faith communities throughout the four-county area we serve to take up the challenge and help transform the world for children in foster care and create healing for families.
The needs of children in foster care are staggering, but there are solutions and meaningful actions. If your faith community adopts foster care or the work of CASA as one of its causes, you can make a big impact in your own backyard.
“CASA and Community” is an effort to build a network of faith communities and leaders that will champion local children in foster care. The goal of the program is to bring people together to be a voice for the children who need them.
Service to others is a universal calling that is part of every faith tradition. Volunteering with CASA is a meaningful way for people of faith to fulfill this calling. It allows you to serve individual children and families and to strengthen the fabric of society as a whole. With extensive training and ongoing support for volunteer advocates, CASA gives people of faith an opportunity to make a profound difference in the lives of children — and the world.
Volunteers can be united in their commitment to caring for the vulnerable and protecting children and families during times of crisis. Though volunteering with CASA, you can honor this commitment and fulfill your calling.
To learn more about how you and the other members of your faith community can support foster children in your community, contact Jenny Crosby at (918) 686-8199 or via email at jenny@casaok.org.