Dear CASA Community,
CASA exists because we recognize the importance of human connection and the power that connection has for every child, particularly those undergoing trauma. Time and time again, the presence of one consistent adult, a CASA volunteer, has provided our children with the strength and voice they need.
As we shelter in place, the emotional and psychological toll of the last few months has manifested itself differently with all of us. For the young people we support, the trauma that brought their families to our program in the first place has only been compounded by the impact of the current pandemic and isolation of sheltering in place.
COVID is not the only crisis we are confronting right now. The events of the last few days have underscored a history of violence, injustice, and pain around race and poverty in our country. Many are left questioning how to process, and what to do to keep their spirit intact and how to respond meaningfully and in a way that moves us forward. If this is the impact on the adults around us, how must already-vulnerable young people be expected to respond? How can we continue to provide needed support?
As a Black woman, a mother, and a person who cares about my community, I mourn the loss and pain that is so raw right now, especially at a time when we are unable to connect in some of the ways that are so vital to healing.
I worry about all children and struggle with how to give them a community where they can all live with dignity, hope, and equal opportunity for success. I recognize that each of us bring diverse frames of reference and varying comfort levels with discussions about race, injustice, and inequity. Our CASA youth may have more lived experience with these issues than some of us and, likely, more lived experience than we would want for any child.
Our program will be exploring opportunities to provide you with tools to help navigate these issues and support your CASA youth. In the meantime, I hope the list below will offer some resources for additional reflection and conversation. Please feel free to reach out to me with additional suggestions.
Take care of yourself and let’s continue to take care of one another.
Nkia Richardson
Executive Director
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Resources
Self-Care
The best way to promote healing is to start with ourselves. Please check out the following resources for self-care.
- The Monterey Bay Aquarium offers guided meditations here.
- Check here to download free guided meditations from the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center.
If You Want to Listen or Watch:
- Code Switch, by NPR, features a diverse team of journalists “fascinated by the overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities and how all of this is shifting.” Recently, Code Switch has also covered police brutality and race in relation to COVID-19. See here for Code Switch episodes for kids.
- Click here for an interview with Ruth King, author of Mindful of Race: Transforming from the Inside Out. King's book explores race, racism and mindfulness.
- Seeing White is a fourteen-part documentary series. Themes discussed with leading scholars include the construction of racial identity, white supremacy, police shootings and racial inequity across many institutions.
- 13th is a documentary about race, justice and mass incarceration (directed by Ava DuVernay).
- When They See Us is a Netflix miniseries about the 1989 Central Park Jogger case (also directed by Ava DuVernay).
- Listen to “Miss Buchanan’s Period of Adjustment”, an episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast Revisionist History. In this episode, Gladwell explores race in American education through a social science and historical lens.
If You, Or Your Child, Want to Read:
