Dear CASA Friends:
As we enter this holiday season, we ask you to take a moment and reflect on the year 2015. For many children here in our community, this reflection may not be positive. Some children have moved from foster home to foster home; have suffered from physical abuse or have been neglected by parents or caregivers. Many babies are born dependent upon drugs their mothers used during pregnancy and are spending up to 85 days in the hospital suffering withdrawal. Some of our local children have died at the hands of their abusers. For CASA, (Court Appointed Special Advocates) we have continued our mission of serving abused and neglected children in our community who are in foster care through the circuit court system. You do not often hear about these small victims because of the privacy rights of each minor child.
CASA would like to challenge you, your friends, business, social or civic groups, organizations, company and /or agency to join the “Time to Give” challenge; to aid this next generation who is suffering tremendously. Participation is relatively easy and you can choose your level of participation.
• Level I – 1 hour’s salary donation
• Level II – 1 hour’s salary donation per week
• Level III – Employer matching each hour’s salary donations.
• Level IV – A set donation amount
For example, you and four co-workers agree to donate $10 per hour every week for one month. That is $50 per week and $200 for one month. Your employer agrees to match this donation so CASA receives a $400 donation and it only costs you $10 per week! Imagine the support to our local children if 1,000 individuals donated one hour’s salary per week for a month. The money donated will be used by CASA to continue advocating for our local abused and neglected children. CASA of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, WV, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. Donations of $500 or more may qualify to receive WV NIPS credit which are distributed on a first come, first serve basis.
There are other ways you can “give” to CASA. You can become a Volunteer Advocate, serve on the CASA Board of Directors or volunteer at our program.
When you become an advocate with CASA, you are advocating for the child who has moved seven times in a year, the child who carries his possessions in a trash bag from home to home or the child who has attended eight different schools in two years because she is in foster care. A child with a CASA volunteer is half as like to languish in foster care and more likely to find a safe, permanent home. The CASA advocate is most likely to be the most consistent person in a child’s life during his or her case in court.
Since inception, CASA has advocated for 592 children in Greenbrier and Pocahontas Counties. Of these 592 children, 429 children have received a safe permanent home by adoption (172), returning to their parents (186), or legal guardianship or relative placements (65). Since January 2015, CASA has received 124 new petitions in Greenbrier and Pocahontas Counties. Of the 212 children served to date, 28 were adopted, 19 were reunited with their parents and 9 were placed in legal guardianship.
Again, we ask that you take “Time to Give” this year and help change the life of an abused and neglected child in your community.
Donations can be mailed to CASA, P.O. Box 1142, Lewisburg, WV 24901, please indicate “Time to Give” in the memo or contributions can be made through our website at CASAadvocates.org.
Sincerely,
LeAnn Lane Montgomery
Development Coordinator
CASA of the 11th Judicial Circuit,
Lewisburg