How can we learn from the stories of those who experienced our foster care system firsthand, and move towards more compassionate and holistic advocacy for youth and families? Join us for an inspirational conversation with Collaborative Family Engagement Coach Maria McCord about the importance of empathy in our work with children and families, and the lifesaving power of connection.

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Our guest Lisa Merkel-Holguin has written that "children and youth, in systems that are designed to serve them, often experience their needs and opinions as being overlooked in the context of planning for them." Join us for part two of this episode featuring Anita Horner and Lisa Merkel-Holguin to learn more about creative and meaningful ways young people’s needs and interests could be better centered within case planning meetings and decision-making processes. 

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Too often, child welfare professionals' good intentions of protecting children or youth from difficult conversations can have the unintended result of excluding the young person from decision-making that profoundly impacts them. Texas CASA is deeply honored to welcome the powerhouse duo Lisa Merkel-Holguin and Anita Horner from The Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect for this two-part episode to talk about how CASA advocates can empower youth to participate more meaningfully in their family meetings, as well as in decision-making in the CPS process more generally. 

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Understanding the desires of the child or youth is central to best interest advocacy. How can CASA advocates partner with youth to ensure their voices are heard and their perspectives are valued? In this episode we're joined by two wonderful guests from Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS), Prince Hayward and Josue Rodriguez, sharing their expertise about how advocates can work to meaningfully include youth voices and input in our advocacy. 

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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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The CASA guiding principles emphasize that if a child is removed from their family of origin, the child should be placed with a relative whenever safely possible and in the child’s best interests. This week we're thrilled to share a conversation with The Honorable Leonard Edwards, who joins us to talk about his recent article on the urgency of placing children with relatives. A retired judge now working as a consultant and educator on judicial best practices, Judge Edwards served as a Superior Court Judge in Santa Clara County for 26 years, and then served six years as Judge-in-Residence at the Center for Families, Children & the Courts, a division of the Judicial Council of California. He also helped start one of the largest CASA programs in California. 

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Research shows that youth in foster care are at high risk of dropping out of school and are less likely to attend or graduate from college than peers who did not experience foster care. CASA volunteers can play a powerful role when it comes to supporting these youth in meeting their educational goals, including access to higher education. In this episode of CASA on the Go, we're joined by Jessica Aleman, LCSW, to talk about Island Harbor, a wraparound program here in Texas that exists to empower young adults aging out of the foster care system in pursuing a college degree. To learn more about Island Harbor, visit the program's website or contact Jessica at [email protected].

For more resources, visit Education Reach for Texans, which seeks to eliminate barriers to success and build support programs for youth who experienced foster care attending public colleges and universities in the state of Texas. Follow these links to learn more about the many postsecondary programs for foster alumni and campus-based independent living programs. 

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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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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. This episode features Texas CASA CEO Vicki Spriggs and Riki Wilchins, Executive Director of TrueChild, discussing gender norms and the connections between gender, race, and ethnicity, and the ways these norms affect children. To watch Riki's powerful 30-minute talk, visit our Distinguished Speaker Series page: https://dss.texascasa.org/

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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. This episode features Texas CASA CEO Vicki Spriggs and Dr. Jessica Pryce, Executive Director of the Florida Institute for Child Welfare, discussing how we can more effectively address inequity in our child welfare system. To watch Dr. Pryce's powerful 30-minute talk, visit our Distinguished Speaker Series page: https://dss.texascasa.org/

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