Links to;
Part 1
Part 2
Dear Kids At Risk Action Readers,
Eliminating the Volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) will hurt children, institutions, and our quality of life for years to come. Minnesota youth and young families are struggling. They need more, not less help. Senior Judge Lyonel Norris has said that “…an all employee model can create an institutionalizing effect upon a child”
Current at risk child trends and data are troubling. The lack of reporting & transparency in Child Protective Services hurts us all.
For 40 years, Volunteers have been providing Time, Passion, Diversity &Transparency In an agency that has great needs.
Today;
24% of Black 3rd grade children in Minneapolis schools are reading at grade level & 10% in math (Star Tribune)
90% of youth in Juvenile Justice have passed through CPS (MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz),
80% of youth aging out of foster care lead dysfunctional lives.
Arguably, this institution is creating what it was designed to stop. Help KARA and the CASA volunteer guardian ad Litem program change that. Share the note note below with your State Representative.
This note (below) clarifies what will be lost if management is successful in ending community CASA volunteer involvement in CPS.
To help reverse this misguided decision –
send the note below to your State Representative
(or other political connection)
(link to finding your State Rep).
To be most impactful,
following up this note with a call or a meeting is most effective.
State Representatives will often agree to meet you at their local office,
or at a coffee shop where you live (they live there too).
Dear Representative _____________________________
I’m ____________ your constituent bringing attention a critical issue impacting abused and neglected children in our community right now.
The Guardian ad Litem CASA volunteer program is being eliminated & replaced with all paid staff.
This is happening because the Guardian ad Litem (GAL) program after 40 years has finally received more funding to meet the needs of Minnesota’s abused and neglected children. The volunteer program lobbied for this funding because children were going without a Guardian ad Litem voice in Child Protection due to a shortage of volunteers and staff.
- In requesting funding from the MN legislature last year, program administrators did not disclose that it would be eliminating CASA volunteers if funding was provided. This was misleading and must be addressed. Instead of lowering caseloads for paid staff (which could have served both staff and children) management has made a decision that removes what is arguably the most effective and humane service within Child Protective Services. It’s a terrible waste of resources and demoralizing to have the volunteer program in conflict with the funding of paid staff. Today, both paid staff and volunteers are leaving the program at alarmingly high levels which is indicting a toxic management atmosphere.
Management believes that paid staff are easier to manage and will more easily meet the Key Performance Indicators set by the governing body (Minnesota State GAL Board). I empathize with the pressure on management to meet the KPI’s but not until KPI’s more accurately reflect the outcomes this program is achieving and the value of trained and competent community volunteers. Today, there are no KPI’s which measure the quality of services provided or long-term success of outcomes. Today’s KPI’s are focused quantitative processing steps and they are missing the objective.
There are many reasons management is misguided in its direction and it will hurt children which the program is chartered to protect.
Here are a few of them;
- A bias in determining what is measured for KPI’s allows for choosing efficiency over effectiveness. None of the key benefits volunteers provide are included in the KPI measurements.
- Over 40 years, thousands of retired community CASA volunteers have continued their efforts for Minnesota’s Abused and Neglected children long after leaving the program*
- The Administrations misreading (by accident or design) of a significant recent audit of the volunteer program has led the State GAL board to allow the elimination of volunteers
- Volunteers bring diversity, time, life experience, and passion for kids. They often become the significant adult in that child’s life – often the only CPS adult that stays with them the entire time they are in the system. Institutionalized children have many adults passing through their lives – few that they come to know and trust. This is a very big deal to a traumatized child whose life is being directed by an institution.
- There is value to the child in Child Protective Custody when a volunteer has hours to spend with a troubled child on a regular basis each month. Paid staff handle 30 families with 100 to 150 children per month and have little or no time with the children in their caseloads. Checking boxes not visits is at the heart of this issue. Volunteers take an average of 3 families and can spend hours with each child each month – These kids need and appreciate a volunteer community adult in their life**.
- If this effort succeeds and future State budgets require cuts, paid staff will need to serve 40 or 50 families with 200 to 300 children each month. There will be no trained and ready volunteers to fill in. It takes years to rebuild a program requiring the recruiting and training required for child protection work.
Please support at risk children and struggling families in our community and contact the Guardian ad Litem board members to let them know you are concerned with their decision to let management eliminate the volunteer program.
If you have questions, KARA attempts to answer
all email questions in a timely manner.
No phone calls. KARA has no paid staff available for calls.
with Eliminating the CASA volunteer program in the subject line.
