Dear Volunteers,
This month is exciting, as we return to our monthly "Lunch and Learn" continuing education opportunities!
For our new volunteers who started with us in the past 15 months, we have always offered our volunteers a chance each month to come together with other CASA volunteers to have some lunch and take care of their continuing education requirements all in one shot. We paused these meetings due to the pandemic, but they are starting back up this week, and it's a great time to get to know your fellow volunteers while checking in with staff and earning your continuing education.
This month, we are pleased to have Judge Flores with us to talk about the importance of cultural sensitivity, and we have a special take away - one of the local high schools did a cultural activity where they created "craft bags" featuring a craft idea that you can do with your youth, highlighting something that is culturally significant to the region they studied. For instance, I saw a project from China where you will color chopstix with your youth. The high school kids were so excited about their project, and loved that they were giving them to CASA volunteers - so you will leave with several bags - to "visit" a few countries with your youth.
The CASA team is excited to see many of you in person! The response to the return to these monthly in-person meetings has been very strong - we have 20 people signed up to attend in Santa Barbara, Lompoc has 12 signed up, and Santa Maria is our biggest group with 24 sign-ups so far! An RSVP is essential so that we have enough room and food for the group.
We are also so happy to see many of you planning to bring your CASA youth to the Summer BBQ! Again - for our new volunteers, this is one of the key activities for our kids, and this year they are pulling out all the stops! We have a pool staffed by Red Cross lifeguards, the Balloon Guy (he makes the most creative balloon art, and the kids love it! We have pony rides, and this year we have a therapy dog that we think the kids are going to just love. On top of that, there will be more food than you can imagine, and the kids will have a chance to be a "best cookie" judge, where they will take home their own box of girl scout cookies. Yard games, and so many little gifts for the kids! We look forward to seeing you there!
I do have one special request. If you are a volunteer who is taking a break between cases, or if you just have a couple of extra hours - would you consider learning more about the opportunity to serve in our Family Visits Program? The commitment is as short or long term as you prefer, and we need volunteers in both Santa Maria and Lompoc. You might choose to just do the transport of the kids to and from the visit, or you might do the 2-hour supervision. Either way, you have training and support and best of all, you are helping a family reunite! To learn more, email
brittany@sbcasa.org.
As always, thank you for all you do for our kids!
