Monroe County CASA
Monroe County CASA is a volunteer-powered program that provides representation in juvenile court for child victims of abuse and neglect. The program needs more diverse volunteers to better help more children.
CASA recruits, screens, trains, and supervises adult community members who volunteer their time to serve as Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs). CASAs have full legal authority set forth by the State of Indiana.
CASAs provide advocacy to child victims to ensure that they remain at the forefront of the court proceedings and find a safe, permanent home as quickly as possible.
Child Abuse Amongst Different Groups
From the dictionary, we can refer to diversity as any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another. However, it is a more specific regarding diverse children in the US. When we talk about diversity amongst children on CASA’s case list, we are mainly refering to children from different family backgrounds, genders, and ages.
According to Statista, the number of children ages two to five years old who were abused in the United States in 2020 is around 150,673. The abuse rate for Hispanic children is 7.8 for every 1,000. The rate is also high for American Indian or Alaska Native children, with 15.5 children out of every 1,000 experiencing some form of abuse.
This data shows that child abuse in the US may happen among people of different backgrounds which indicates different requirements to help them. Therefore, to better advocate for these children, a diverse volunteer base is needed.
What are the benefits of having diverse volunteers to help diverse children?
Having a diverse volunteer pool will be very beneficial to both the children that CASA serves, as well as the volunteers.
- Experiencing diversity can increase the possibilities of future personal growth for both volunteers and children. Volunteers can learn how to understand and better interact with people from different cultures and language backgrounds, helping them to grow as a volunteer. Children can also learn about other cultures and languages from their volunteer
- Children can benefit from a diverse volunteer base. When a volunteer from the same race, culture, or language background helps a child, it is more likely that the child will better relate and connect with the volunteer..
- Having a diverse pool of volunteers can give the CASA program the ability to better handle more complex cases. Each child abuse case is serious and can be complicated with alot of moving parts. A diverse volunteer base gives the CASA program access to provide the best possible advocate for each child.
Monroe County CASA Is Looking for Volunteers!
Monroe County CASA is currently serving a disproportionate amount of Black and Hispanic children relative to the predominantly white population in Monroe County. To tackle this lack of representation among volunteers, Monroe County CASA wants to increase the number of Black and Hispanic volunteers to better serve children in the system.
If you are interested in giving a child a voice, click and join us now!
Written by: Jia Cheng Li