Throughout our country, February marks a time to honor and recognize the accomplishments and history of Black Americans. As we continue into Black History Month, we must ask ourselves how we can improve racial equality and address disproportionality and disparity that negatively impacts Black communities.

Advocating for children in the Texas foster care system, CASA recognizes that the system itself reflects inequities in our society. Two current problems are racial disproportionality and disparity. Disproportionality means a particular race or cultural group is over-represented, and disparity refers to the differences in conditions and outcomes because of unequal treatment or services.

Black children account for around 12% of the Texas child population but currently make up 21.5% of the Texas foster care population. Texas Child Protective Services receives higher reports of alleged abuse and/or neglect involving Black families than Anglo families and is more likely to remove Black children from their homes. After a removal has occurred, disparities within the system also emerge. A Black child is less likely to be reunified with their family of origin and, if reunification has been ruled out, a Black child is less likely to be adopted within the following 12 months. Children and youth can experience a great loss of family, connection, and culture.

There is a clear difference with how many kids are entering the system when you look at the numbers by racial group, and it is not because there is more abuse in one community than in another. If we want to improve outcomes and reduce unnecessary removal of children from their homes, we need to do everything we can to address the issue - everyone - as CASA volunteers, as neighbors, as community members and as leaders.

CASA provides training to equip CASA volunteers with knowledge to help spot and combat occurrences and patterns that contribute to inequity. We work to promote diversity and inclusiveness in volunteer recruitment so children have a volunteer who understands them completely—including their cultural background and needs. We actively seek more volunteers from communities of color who demographically reflect the populations we serve. Along with the myriad child welfare stakeholders, we must work diligently to make our foster care system fair for all.

If you would like to help, please reach out.

Executive Director

CASA of Central Texas

Your support elevated CASA's efforts substantially this fiscal year 2020-2021, a critical time for children and families involved in the foster care system. Thus, it is my absolute pleasure to share with you the impact of your investment in CASA of Central Texas.

As we entered into the new year, we faced a now familiar stumbling block. Safety guidelines due to the prolongation of COVID-19 limited in-person contact, prompting us to increase our online capacity. We charged forward with virtual community information sessions and pre-service volunteer training classes, all while participating in virtual casework meetings, court hearings and mediations.

Despite meeting each obstacle head on, we faced our greatest deterrent when child protection court judges confirmed the number of child abuse and neglect cases were on the rise and case resolutions were stagnant in our community. Rather than feel discouraged, we could only revel in the goodness shown by our supporters.

Never have we seen anything quite like the collective outpouring of love we received. You advocated on CASA's behalf this year, with your financial gifts, words of kindness, and friendship. To everyone who donated through our fundraising campaigns or sponsored our events, we thank you for recognizing our work and choosing to be a part of it.

With every page turn of this Impact Report, we hope you find reassurance in your reason for giving. See what your support has accomplished - such as an 83% volunteer retention rate! Before you dive in, thank you again for making this a banner year for CASA!

Read our 2021 Impact Report HERE.

Kelly Dickson accepted her first CASA case with one child in 2019. After that case closed, she took her second case advocating for a sibling group of five children! Kelly is dedicated to serving her community and helping children and families. As a former prosecutor, she was familiar with CASA and the work we do, however, it was not until she became a trained CASA advocate that she fully understood CASA's invaluable service for cases involving abuse and neglect of children.

contact Brandi Raschke at 512-392-3578, 830-626-2272, or by email.

The Program adheres to the National CASA/GAL Association for Children’s Core Model of providing screened, trained, and qualified community court appointed volunteers to advocate for the best interests of children and youth who are before the court as a result of abuse or neglect as defined by the state child welfare laws, living at home or in out-of-home care, as well as operates in alignment with the mission. CASA/GAL volunteers advocate for children from birth through the age defined by the state statute as the limit to youth remaining in care.

The mission of colleagues at Precious Life Services is to decrease suicide, drug use and violence among our community's youth. Programs help identify and prevent harm to youth at risk. By empowering parents, schools and the community, we are better equipped to recognize the signs and behaviors of suicidal tendencies. You can find more information here: https://preciouslifecrusadeteensuicideprevention.org/

CASA Supervisor and CFE Liaison Tim Judkins offers a bi-monthly Q&A session as an opportunity for CASA volunteers to interact with each other while learning about each of the six tools utilized in our CFE program. These tools help an advocate spend quality time with a child and engage them in conversation, gleaning valuable information about the child's life and history. In January, the featured CFE tool was Mobility Mapping. Learn more about CFE here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsUzGihB1QDrex1_pAJBXsQ

Watch Part One of CFE Tools Q&A here

Save the date for the 10^th annual Amplify Austin Day! Thousands will take part in the biggest communitywide day of giving in Central Texas: starting 6PM on March 2 and ending 6PM on March 3. You can join the movement by lifting up CASA of Central Texas!

Second, share your love for CASA on social media to connect new CASA volunteers and financial supporters. Third, become a fundraising champion by driving people to our CASACenTex profile on Amplify Austin Day. To get started, click on “Fundraise” at the top of our profile page here.

Can’t wait?! Make a donation in advance here now.  

Walk Run Thrive is an annual signature event of the National CASA/GAL Association for Children. The event connects our nationwide network of volunteers and supporters to generate awareness for our shared mission through a fun and engaging virtual event.

Register here

From now until April 11, 2022, CASA of Central Texas is fundraising through the 100^th annual Valero Texas Open. We partner with Champions fore Charity (formerly known as Birdies for Charity) through which Valero donates a 7% match back to CASA of Central Texas!

You can bump us even higher on the leaderboard by making a donation here

We accept most cars, trucks, trailers, boats, RV’s, motorcycles, off road vehicles, heavy equipment and other motorized vehicles. For more information or to make a donation, click here.