Our speaker, Carmin Christensen is the Director of Volunteer Recruitment and Outreach for CASA. She has a Rotary background, being an Ambassadorial Scholar in Irkutsk, Russia. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Tbilisi, Georgia (former Soviet Republic), holds an MA in International Affairs from Tufts University and her BA from Wellesley College.

Carmin enlightened us with some interesting statistics regarding Foster Care in Los Angeles County. Did you know that less than 50% of foster kids graduate from high school and only 3% from college? Or, 25% of youths aging out of foster care will be incarcerated within two years? There are over 30,000 children in the Los Angeles County foster care system, many of which have been removed from their homes because of abuse or abandonment.     Most of those kids (73%) have to deal with it without much support and spend two or more years in the foster care system. CASA was founded in 1978 as a non-profit that recruits, trains, and supports volunteers to transform lives of the children in the foster care system. Each volunteer goes through a seven-week training program and spend forty hours learning how to become an advocate for these kids. Once trained, the advocate is sworn in by a judge, as an officer of the court, they then have access to personal records of the child they will be paired with. Information such as medical history, educational records, grade level progress, behavioral problems, family history and more is reviewed. This allows them to focus solely on one child and become their advocate. Currently there are 489 community members volunteering their time for CASA, working every day to help children succeed in life. Each volunteer looks at three areas to help their particular child; safety, permanency, and wellbeing.  To volunteer, click on www.casala.org to get started.

This is truly heroic and a worthwhile cause in which to volunteer and become an advocate to a child who might have suffered abuse and neglect. Thank you CASA for your kindness and caring support.

(Pat Dolphin)