Macon Magazine

78 maconmagazine.com | DECEMBER/JANUARY 2023 WHY CASA MATTERS BY ELIZA MOORE THE NUMBERS FOR CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE: • By the age of 17, over half of youth experiencing foster care will have also experienced an arrest, conviction, or overnight stay in a correctional facility. • As much as 80% of the nation's prison population consists of former foster youth. • Half of children in foster care leave high school without a diploma, and by age 25, fewer than 3% have a college degree. Statistics found from CASA website THE BIBB-CRAWFORD-PEACH CIRCUIT CURRENTLY HAS: • 246 children in foster care • 132 children actively represented by CASA volunteers • 114 children still in need of a CASA volunteer Numbers from Executive Director of Central Goergia CASA Susanna Patterson STUDIES SHOW THAT AFTER HAVING A CASA VOLUNTEER: • A child is half as likely to reenter the child welfare system. • Four out of five CASA recommendations on their behalf are accepted in court. • Children reported significantly higher levels of hope, which is linked to academic success, overall wellbeing, increases in self-control, positive social relationships, and optimism. Research conducted by National CASA/GAL Association HOW YOU CAN HELP: • Bibb-Crawford-Peach currently has around 50 committed volunteers. In order for every child to be assigned a CASA, they would need to double this number. • CASA volunteers are taken on a rolling basis throughout the year, and after training, they commit to between 10 and 15 hours a month for each case. • Spread awareness about the program, and go to the CASA website at cgcasa.org/volunteer/apply-now/ and click Volunteer to begin the process! volunteers remains. As of this writing, 118 kids in foster care are still without a CASA. With a total of 30 in-class hours (15 in-person and 15 independently working through an online platform that National CASA provides) and 10 observation hours, the training period occurs on a rolling basis throughout the year. After training, a volunteer commitment averages between 10 and 15 hours per month throughout the lifetime of a case. Central Georgia CASA volunteers like Snead, Dekle, Solomon, Abbot, and Helm display passion, commitment, and love. The gift of their time and attention has impacted not just the children they serve, but also our community as a whole. TACKLING A TRAGEDY "Because the experience of foster care is linked to so many of the problematic outcomes that we see plague our community," Patterson said, "we are a recipient of the Macon Violence Prevention Grant. One of the things we are really working on there is increasing the percentage of older youth that we are serving because the linkage between experiencing foster care as a teenager or a child

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