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Resources


Best Practices for Working with Girls on Probation

Thursday, August 12, 7 pm - 8:30 pm

CASA office

Presenter: Julie Guzman of JPG Consultants.

 

Julie is a trained CASA herself. She has trained SF CASA volunteers about working with youth in the juvenile justice system as well. Her focus will be on cycles of delinquency and prostitution.

Any CASAs working with girls or troubled youth are encouraged to attend. Please RSVP to Sean at seanmcnamara@cccocasa.org or 925-256-7284 ext. 2.


 

Some great continuing education opportunities to your team members. Click here for the flyer.

 

ATTENTION: All CASA of Contra Costa County Volunteers and Staff!

You are cordially invited to attend one, two, or all three of these FREE training sessions. Lunch will be provided, and training is FREE, thanks to the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

 


 

Click here to view some wonderful ideas and suggestions for CASAs & Child Activities

 


 

For available scholarship information, please click here.

 


 

Goldstar - discounted surplus tickets to leisure activities such as live entertainment, film screenings, sporting events, etc.

Sometimes the tickets are free. In order to get the tickets, you have to register for Goldstar Events, but there is no registration fee.

 


 

The Children's Bureau opened Child Welfare Information Gateway
 

This service provides child welfare and related professionals with easy access to information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families.

Find essential information and resources on a wide range of topics, including child abuse prevention, family preservation and support, domestic and inter-country adoption, search and reunion, and much more.

 

Information Gateway offers many free services for busy professionals who want to stay current with the latest information and resources, including: an online library of over 48,000 documents www.childwelfare.gov/library, and more than 130 Information Gateway Publications www.childwelfare.gov/search/pubs_search.cfm.

Free subscription services www.childwelfare.gov/admin/subscribe.

 


 

Foster youth who are 16 are eligible to participate in a jobs program sponsored by the Contra Costa County Office of Education. The program provides tutoring and study skills, job development and placement, career
training and counseling, GED or high school diploma assistance and preparation for college.

 

If you think your CASA child would benefit from this program please call Leilani Villegas at 925-942-3309 or Oscar Blackwell at 925-942-3363.

 


 

California Institute of Human Services, Sonoma State University presents Child Abuse Mandated Reporter Online Training - FREE! To register go to www.cattacenter.org and click on the Available Training link, then click on the Free Mandated Child Abuse Reporter Online Training link or call Jillian Strawn at 707-284-9537 for more information.

 


Guitars not Guns Class

Check it out at www.guitarsnotguns.org

 

 

The classes at the Boys and Girls Club in Martinez. The focus of the class is to learn beginning guitar, the basic chords and their relationship with all kinds of contemporary music. Guitars are furnished.

 

Please contact Frank Darling at 925-330-4425 if you are interested in having your CASA kid attend.


 

The CASA office has a publication for teens about to emancipate entitled "When You Become 18, A Survival Guide for Teenagers". This publication was funded by a grant from the Foundation of The State Bar of California. Its purpose is to educate young adults about their rights and responsibilities under the law. It provides teenagers with valuable information to navigate the exciting and sometimes daunting transition from childhood to adulthood.

We have several copies in English and some copies in Spanish. Please stop by and pick up a copy to give to your CASA child. Additional copies are available by sending a request to: 18@calbar.ca.gov

 


 

Community Youth Center - Concord Campus, located at 2241 Galaxy Court (925-671-7070) is a non-profit sports facility for children ages 4 to 18 years old. CYC recently changed its name from Concord Youth Center. CYC offers nine recreational athletic programs as well as an academic augmentation program. The athletic programs include: boxing, wrestling, gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, tae kwon do, judo, dance, cheer and sports specific conditioning.

 

When you enroll your CASA child in any of the activities please ask for a scholarship application. You will not be required to submit paycheck stubs. Merely indicate that the child is part of the CASA program and the fees will be waived.

 

Please call Cheri at 925-256-7284 you have any questions about this program.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2009 CASA of Contra Costa County

 

That Bird Has My Wings

Masters describes his journey from abused and neglected child to criminal to prisoner and from a child seeking connection to a young adult unable to relate to others to a practicing Buddhist working for peace among San Quentin inmates.
The first half of the book is about his childhood with his mom, good and bad foster families, and good and bad institutions. This section is most relevant for CASAs, as he describes how much he needed someone to believe him and believe in him as well as the rationale behind his seemingly self-destructive behavior.
In the second half of the book, he recounts his life as a criminal and as a prisoner, including his conversion to Buddhism and how that changed his life. He takes full responsibility for his crimes and bad decisions, although he is innocent of the crime for which he is sentenced to die.
While some of Masters’ experiences have been grim, it is not a depressing book to read. On the contrary, I found it very uplifting.

Review by D.


 

Three Little Words

"I strongly recommend this book to all CASAs and teenage CASA children as well, especially teenage girls.

This is a memoir written by a young woman who spent nine years in fourteen different foster homes.

Ashley writes about being juggled between caseworkers and shuffled from school to school. Towards the end of the book she lists the number of different people

in her life

while in foster care.

This list includes 73 child welfare administrators, 44 social workers, 19 foster parents, 23 attorneys, and the list goes on and on until at the end of the list Ashley cites one Guardian ad Litem (CASA). Ashley is the adopted daughter of Gay Courter, author of I Speak for this Child."

Barbara, CASA Volunteer

This book is available in CASA library.


 

Hope's Boy

A Memoir by Andrew Bridge

This novel is an insightful look at the experience of growing up as a foster child in LA County in the 70s. Fortunately some of the direst conditions described in the novel no longer exist, at least not in Contra Costa County. However, some of the problems and issues are still current and some may be systemic to the problem of protecting children. Andy recalls lying to social workers about how well things are going out of fear of reprisal and some fear of the unknown if he were to leave his current foster home. Visits from social workers are infrequent and often by a new worker each time. Insufficient trust ever develops for Andy to tell the truth

about his dictatorial unbalanced

foster mother.
Andy's mother was mentally unbalanced and unable to support him but loved him. Andy longs for this mother who loved him. Visits are extremely limited and at some point end altogether. Andy doesn't know

until he reaches adulthood how hard his mother fought to get him back and how close she came. The social worker who informs Andy doesn't know how sustaining this information might have been had Andy known while he was growing up. One cannot help but wonder how much difference a CASA could have made in this case.

More about the book:

www.hopesboy.com


Movie recommendation

for CASA volunteers;

not recommended for children

 

An American Crime

(Ellen Page and Catherine Keener)
It is a fact based movie on the child abuse and murder of Sylvia Likens. Here's the plot summary from imdb.com:

"Based on a true story that shocked the nation in 1965, the film recounts one of the most shocking crimes ever committed against a single victim. Sylvia and Jennie Fae Likens, the two daughters of traveling carnival workers are left for an extended stay at the Indianapolis (3850 E. New York St. is hardly suburban, nor was it in 1965, by any stretch of the imagination.) home of single mother Gertrude Baniszewski and her seven children. Times are tough, and Gertrude's financial needs cause her to make this arrangement before realizing how the burden will push her unstable nature to a breaking point. What transpires in the next three months is both riveting and horrific, leaving one child dead and the rest scarred for life."