 Natalie Moore presented on of CASA El Dorado. Growing up in El Dorado County, Natalie Moore completed CASA El Dorado’s Advocate training in 2017. Becoming an Advocate ignited her passion for service to foster youth. Natalie joins CASA El Dorado with extensive experience in child welfare advocacy. With a law degree from Pacific Coast University, her background includes serving as court-appointed counsel for youth and families for the past five years. She is honored to now serve this vulnerable population in her new role as CASA’s Executive Director in the County she grew up. CASA Stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. CASAs volunteer on behalf of abused, neglected and/or at-risk youth.
The objective of the CASA volunteer is to: 1) Provide a caring and consistent adult; 2) Ensure child's needs are being met in real time; 3) Lift up the child’s voice in the courtroom; 4) Provide necessary feedback to court players; and 5) Provide recommendations to the court. The core program is with foster-care-based youth. One reason the program is effective is that the child knows this is a volunteer who is choosing to spend time with them. Of the 437,000 foster youth in the US, 60,000 of them are in CA. Thus, CA has 13.7% of the foster youth population of the US, but only 11.6% of the general population of the US. Natalie speculated that this may be because of California having a more robust child support system than average in the US. 44% of the foster youth will have more than 3 placements, and 15% will have more than 5 placements.
CASA El Dorado has an $800K operating budget, about half of which comes from fund-raising. Also there are 17 children on the wait list because there are not quite enough CASAs to fill the need. Youth that are supported by a CASA are more likely to: Be placed in safe, permanent home; More likely to remain connected to loved ones; Receive vital services; and Graduate high school. For more information on volunteering or donating, please visit this CASA Eldorado link.
|
.png)
Dave Sargent: Announced that our club and its Community Foundation gave away $41,000 to area high school students in scholarships and grants to further their education. Don Fuller is seen here presenting a vocational grant at Union Mine High School, where we awarded 4 grants totaling $10,000. Dave Sargent presented our first-ever Perseverance Award and our traditional scholarships at Ponderosa High School. He said this year local organizations gave away more than $400,000 to students from four high schools to further their education.