IT SHOULDN’T HURT TO BE A KID!

Each year, startling numbers of children enter into foster care through no fault of their own, their only crime was to trust a loved one. They are innocent victims of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. They silently shoulder this trauma as they wait for judges to decide their future—often this decision has to be made without the child’s best interests in mind. Many of these children become victims a second time, lost in an overburdened child welfare system without the resources to pay individual attention to each child.

Sometimes a child can remain adrift in foster care for months, even years, with no one adult speaking on their behalf. No one is seeking justice for them.

In Plaquemines Parish, that’s where the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Plaquemines Parish volunteers step in to speak up for the best interests of the child. A CASA volunteer is appointed by a judge to recommend the best possible outcomes for an abused or neglected child. The ultimate goal of the CASA volunteer is to help ensure that every one of our Plaquemines Parish children can live in a safe, permanent home without “slipping through the cracks” of the system.