CASA on the Go: Continuing Education for CASA Volunteers

At Texas CASA, we believe in learning from the stories and leadership of those who have experienced our systems firsthand. In this episode, we’re joined by Renequa Burch, a mother whose family has been impacted by the Texas foster care system in a deeply agonizing way. Renequa’s experiences offer crucial insights about the importance of engaging meaningfully with parents and family members from the very beginning of appointment, the power of effective communication and collaboration, the need to gather information independently and from the source, and the bedrock importance of ensuring advocacy is grounded in the minimum sufficient level of care.

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The CASA guiding principles stress that strengthening families, through recommendations for services, supports, visitation and communications, is in the child’s best interests to achieve stability and/or reunification. In this episode, we reflect on how CASA advocates can help bend the arc of child welfare practice to become more fully strengths-based and family-centered. The wonderful Dr. Natalie Beck Aguilera shares evidence-based strategies for engaging with families and explores why collaborating with family members is so crucial to effective child advocacy. Dr. Beck Aguilera's "reframe game" illuminates how a strengths-based advocacy lens can help us reconsider resistance we might encounter in our work with families, and she draws on her extensive social work experience to share insights about the ways in which our own attitudes impact our working relationships with parents and families.

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This special episode of CASA on the Go comes from our Distinguished Speaker Series, where we had the amazing opportunity to host conversations with trailblazers in equity and child welfare. In this episode, Kevin Campbell, developer of the Family Finding model, and Texas CASA CEO Vicki Spriggs discuss the role of compassion in child welfare work, and how CASA volunteers can influence the quality of justice experienced by families involved in the child welfare system. View Kevin’s inspirational talk at dss.texascasa.org.

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According to a Texans Care for Children report citing data from 2015, teen girls in Texas foster care were almost five times more likely to become pregnant than their non-foster care peers. In this episode of CASA on the Go we're thrilled to host Kate Murphy, Senior Child Welfare Policy Associate with Texans Care for Children, sharing her expertise on the complex issues around teen pregnancy prevention for youth in foster care. Learn what CASA advocates can do to connect youth with education about healthy relationship dynamics, support the prevention of unplanned teen pregnancies and successfully advocate for the unique needs of pregnant and parenting youth in care. Other resources mentioned in this episode include sample scripts for talking with youth from When You Decide: A Judge's Guide to Pregnancy Prevention Among Foster Youth, loveisrespect and Jane's Due Process.

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In this episode we're delighted to be joined by author, speaker, and CASA advocate Joan Ulsher, a powerful voice for the mission and impact of CASA. Joan shares insights from her work as a deeply devoted advocate as well as from her memoir "Misplaced Childhood: A True Story of Resiliency and Child Advocacy," which touches on her own experience with foster care. You can read more about Joan's work here.

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