Episode Transcript
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One, O, four or fiveLatino Hits is putting the spotlight on you,
San Antonio and proudly serving our community. This is the MIS San Antonio
Community Voices podcast on iHeartRadio San Antonio, representando that two ten baby Piano,
Petro Finco Latino here. This isthe MIS San Antonio podcast. Pedro Alaidest
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and Denamosimita especial for this episode,a person who's gonna speak to us about
CASA. What is CASA Child AdvocatesSan Antonio. The questa what they do,
what type of services it provide andhow CASA impacts our community right here
in San Antonio. La Demos LavenidaLeticia Ernandez, Vice president of Recruitment and
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Training with CASA or Landicia, Howare you, Saki? Oh, glad
to have you. Thank you somuch for making trying to come to the
podcast. Be on the podcast andtalk to us about tell us about GASA.
What is GASA? Sure So,KASA is a nonprofit organization here in
San Antonio. We've been around comingup to forty years, serving our community
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children within the foster care system.We are not a foster agency and we
don't take the kids home with us, but we do advocate for them in
the court system. It is avery unique volunteer opportunity significa advocate. What
do you mean by advocate advocate inthe sense of, we are amplifying the
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voice of these kids in the courtsystem. We are visiting with the kids
once a month, We're talking tothem, We're a mentor. Kids in
foster care move more than two tothree times per year per year, and
so it is defeci it's difficult,right, and so our advocates stay with
these kids from the beginning of thecase when they're appointed, to the end
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of the case, providing a senseof stability throughout that time. Absolutely,
that's what we do because they're jumpingaround home to home, situation situation,
but there's there's one person throughout theentire ordeal, whatever they're going through,
right that that provides a sense ofstability exactly. That's exactly what we do.
Pederal and our advocates. They looklike your everyday person. They like
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you, they look like me,they look like our audience. You don't
need special qualifications, you don't needto have a degree. Your average person
can do this. We we justneed someone with common sense at the end
of the day, someone that cansay, hey, this get us moved
through time. I wonder why they'rehaving difficult a difficult time passing their test.
I wonder why they're having a hardday at school. What tell me
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about the statistics? Uh? Youknow what that that that you know?
Why? Why are these kids?Why are some kids going through the situations
that they're going through. What's goingon? What's what's causing all this That
guys needs to be that GUS hasavailable to help them. So all of
the cases that we work with CHOPProtective Services. So the Department of Family
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Protective Services has stepped in and removedthese kids for their safety. So they're
either placed with family and relatives oryou know, they're in a shelter or
in a foster home. They're inone of these three places, and it's
for their safety, right. They'vedone nothing wrong. These kids are coming
from an environment where sometimes it's happenedfor so long that it's normalized for them
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and they don't know any different.So Shop Protective Services steps in and removes
them. And this is where COSTAis appointed. The judges oversee these cases
and they request that a Costa beappointed because we want to ensure that when
these kids again are moving from placeto place, that they have someone that
they begin to build that trust thatis often lost when they have multiple case
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workers, multiple attorneys, multiple homes, schools, teachers, friends, all
that. So if you look atfrom a trauma and form lens, we
want to ensure that these kids feelsafe again. Where in San Antonio is
this more prevalent? This? Youknow, kids being plucked out of home
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because of bad circumstances and they're havingto be moved around, But where is
this most prevalent? So right nowour seven eight two oh seven is our
number one zip code worth these confirmedcases of abuse and neglect are happening.
We had this coming year, wehad close to almost five thousand children that
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were reported in regards to children thathave experienced abuse and neglect, over close
to five thousand, wow. Andso we've served close to about sixty percent
of those children, but that stillleaves so many other children that we're not
serving yep. And so if wecan, our goal is to always have
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an advocate on every case. Ourour tenure plan is to have one hundred
percent of these kids served, andthat's the goal of this podcast. Because
we're talking about we want to talkabout recruiting folks to become advocates, be
part of GASA. What's that commitmentlike for an advocate? Like, what
what are the requirements? So therequirements are really that one that you have
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the passion to do this right yousay, you're sitting there, you're watching
that new story on the media andyou're like, man, somebody should do
something about that. Well, that'ssomebody. Is that person? If you're
asking yourself that question, then thatis absolutely you are the person that should
do something about it. Reach outto our offices. We provide a four
week training for our advocates free ofcost. So even if you're just interested
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to see if this is something youwant to do, we invite you to
our information session that we have Virtually, if everything goes well, you interview
and then you come in for thetraining, which we have hybrid, some
virtual classes, some in person,and once you complete that, we actually
offer the support for your entire costof journey, so you will have a
cost of supervisor go with you tocourt. Because that was the most fun
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part because I was an advocate myself. I did that for two years and
I loved the experience, but youhave a cost of supervisor with you when
you go to court, when yougo to CPS meetings. And if you
think of as an adult, asa normal person listening to this, you
put a court for a speeding ticket, it's it's checking. It is you're
scared, you know, it's like, oh my gosh, I hope I
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don't have any warrants, you know, whatever it is because going through your
head you feel guilty. You know. Yeah, I could be driving on
the road and I see a cophole over. I freak out right away.
I'm like, oh on the wheelstend Yeah, absolutely, And so
imagine that as a kid for six, ten, twelve, and think of
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your own you know family, right, if you're a grandparent, your grandkids,
if you're and your nieces and nephews. Think of all of that and
how scary that would be. Socan I imagine being a four year old
kid what's going on? Not knowing? Yeah? Yeah, and somebody,
a stranger just completely comes and takesyou out of that home and you have
no idea where they're taking you,where you're going because you're a kid,
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you don't understand. Your comprehension's notthere of what is happening, and you
get placed in this home all alonewith nobody that you know, and all
you want is your mom and dador your siblings. Oftentimes, sibling groups
that are anywhere from three to fiveare often split up because homes don't have
the capacity to have host all ofthem in one place. So it's scary.
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So think back to the first timeyou had a sleepover, right,
how young you were maybe, andyou wake up and before everybody else is
awake in the house and kind ofyou're like, oh, what do I
be? What's happening? Yeah,it's difficult. So for these kids,
our number one priority is just toprovide that consistency. And it's so important
because we can't do this without ourlisteners. We can't do it without our
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volunteers. They are the heart ofour organization. They truly, truly Are
you said something that legit? Iwould stick it about on the way into
the studio to record this podcast.You often see on social media people's outrage
when, like you just mentioned,like why doesn't anybody, why does anybody
do something about this? Right?And people will post and will use hashtags
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save this, save that whatever,but they won't do it. Folks won't
do anything or maybe they don't knowyou know, how to get involved,
and you're right, Rather than justposting and asking why doesn't anybody do something
about this? Why don't you dosomething about it? Get involved, help
out, make a difference in achild's life. And so you were mentioning
what the requirements are, is thereanything there that you would say, hey,
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just you know, just be awareof this other than submitting your application,
doing a phone interview, then youhave the in person interview, correct
with the team member. What elseis what's the process really like there?
So of course pass the background check, right, of course, that's pretty
basic for the safety of the kidsthat we're working with, past that background
check. But other than that,you're common, you know, everyday person
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can do this. You know,we will provide the support, we provide
the training, and we'll walk withyou as you walk with that child.
So we will hold that space foryou to ask questions and to be vulnerable,
right, because these cases are hardand sometimes people come and they're like,
I can't do what you do,Like that's so hard, and I
always ask him that question, butwhat if what if you did do what
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I do? Right, how muchof an impact. You can't change the
world. You can't change and comein and expect that you're going to change
everything. But for that one kit, you're changing their world. Their world,
absolutely, that's a huge difference forthem. So you know, everybody
that's listening today, if it's somethingthat you want to get involved in,
do it. And even even abusein itself. Right, a lot of
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people are like, oh, well, I come from we were talking earlier.
I come from a culture of Hispanicand it's like, not the metas
Gonadian, it's your neighbor, theyalready know where you live, trust me.
But these kids, if you seesomething, do something, because if
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if you're wrong, there's laws protectingyou. Right, there's laws to protect
you if you're wrong. And you'relike, hey, I think so and
so this happened. But if you'reright, oh my gosh, if you're
right, you could be the oneperson to save that child's life. Right.
You said you spent two years asan advocate, right, and you've
kind of already give me a littlebit of an example there of the impact
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in the in the end result ofmaking a child's making it different in a
child's life. But when you gotinvolved and you became an advocate. What
was that What was it like thatfirst time you accompanied a child to to
court proceeding and you know, thingswent great or things didn't go exactly as
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you hope. What was that feelinglike? It is really difficult to describe
that feeling. And I get alittle emotional because the cases that I worked
were not easy, right, butthis work isn't the first time we went
to court. I loved our judges. Our judges here in Bear County are
a phenomenal that we have a greatrelationship with them. Ninety seven percent of
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the time we make a recommendation orexpressed a concern, they're going to go
with it. And I remember whenwe were finishing up my last case,
I went in and my recommendation wasfor what we call PMC to grandma of
the kids. And it just meansthe department stays involved and grandma goes through
these other things to get additional fundingto help her. And I'll never forget
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going back and being there in courtand going back to day one when I
met this lady. She I wastalking to the case worker and the case
worker said, there's no family,we can't go to family, and we're
always looking at reinfine with family.And I said, but wait, I
looked at the paperwork and there's agrandma grandma to to two of the kids,
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not grandma to the other two kids. And she says, yeah,
but she doesn't have the income.There's no way we can make this possible.
So I said, okay, well, let me talk to her.
So I did. I went andtalked to her, and you know,
little casita on the south side oftown. And I said, look,
Grandma, i'd be very honest,like the department doesn't think you're a viable
option because of all of these differentthings. And she said and she looked
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at me with tears in her eyesand said, just just wait. Right
there. She went to her kitchenand grabbed this little notebook that was falling
apart, and she said, hereshe goes. You go to the first
page. I know I don't havethe money, but on the first page
you're going to find all of thefood banks that I've already looked up in
the neighborhood. Wow, this iswhere I can go on the second Tuesday
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of the month, first Saturday ofthe month, the school. It's right
down the street. I already talkedto communities and schools, and I said,
okay, you know, trying tothink like there's got to be something
this woman didn't look into. Andand I said, okay, so what
if you know, what if you'resick, what if it's raining outside and
you have to go to school andtake the kids to school? And she
goes my neighbor. I already talkedto my neighbor. The kids go to
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the same school. He's willing togive them a ride. And I said,
okay, well, what about yourhealth, grandma, Like, what
if something happens with you and youget hospitalized? And she said, here's
the you turn the next page.My friend's information is there. We've been
friends since we were in elementary school. She's willing to do a background check
or take classes, whatever you needher to do. This woman she did,
she did, and nobody had lookedat her as a viable option because
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they were stuck on the red tapeof it doesn't make sense, but there's
so many community resources in San Antoniothat we often overlook, and there's people
that want to make a difference.So for me coming into this and being
at trial and thinking like wow,this wasn't even this wouldn't have been an
option had we not been on thecase, like they would have just deemed
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like, no, this person's notviable. But we went in and did
the work and said tell me,why, tell me why the kids should
be placed? You know, fastforward after that trial, Grandma ended up
adopting the kids and it was itwas the best place for them. But
it it breaks my heart because withoutcosts involved, Yeah, these options are
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not always been devastated, and notbecause they don't want to, not because
CPS is a bad guy or anything. They're just overworked and underpaid. I
mean, their turnovers so high,and they're following their procedures, their policy
procedure. These are the steps.This is what we need and if we
don't see it, then you know, onto the next And that's where,
as you mentioned, GASA comes intoplay, because let's just be wrong.
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Sometimes families or or just people ingeneral don't have maybe the esp so it
needs someone who can take that informationand say, wait a minute, guys,
here it is, here's the gameplan. We can make this viable
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right right, And I think wesee that more and more often, and
I'm glad to see organizations like GASAcoming up or that I've been around,
but becoming more and more available andgetting their name and their brand out there
where people are more aware of,Oh that's whether you have to help relay
that story, those type of stories, right absolutely, And we love doing
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that, right because at the endof the day, it's a change for
the kids, it's changed for thefamily unit is entirely one of the things
that is real important for KASA isfamily. Like I mentioned right, is
looking for family. That's my catchraise in Lamia, especially in the Hispanic
culture, right bay. You know, it's the food, it's the culture,
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it's the environment. You're not justchanging the child's place of living,
you're changing their entire world. Sofor us to come in and say,
hey, what are the needs ofthis child individually, that's what we do
at KASA. We change their life. We we build old a legacy,
not just for the families that we'reworking with, right because we're changing that
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trajectory, but we're changing, we'releaving a legacy for us. So if
you think of and I always thinkabout this, what do I want to
be known as? When when Ileave this earth? Right? When when
my God calls to me and I'mit's, hey, look at all these
kids. You made a change intheir life, and so it's it's wonderful.
It's not just you know, comingfrom Hey, I work here,
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I've been there, I've walked thewalk, I've lived it, I've breathed
it. And and the hugs thatthese kids give you, I mean,
just the it it's hard to describebecause they're so thankful, not just for
what you've done, and they haveno idea, they don't see the legalities,
right cause some of them are soyoung, just right, and you're
the one that shows up. Ifyou say you show up and you show
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up like wow, you're making adifference in their trust. You're making a
difference in their life. So howlong have you been with gus Man,
I've been on CASA as a staffmember going on almost ten years. Have
you run into kids that you've helpednow ten years later. It's funny that
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you say that, because my secondCOSSA case actually involved the six year old
that I worked with. She's sixteennow and we're still in touch. We
still see each other every so often, and she knows that when she's having
a bad day, she can callme because she didn't have to tell me
her story all over again. Youalready know it. I know it.
I know what she's gone through.I know what she's dealt with. And
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sometimes we just go and we justgo grab pizza and we don't say anything
to each other, and she knowsthat, and it's I'm okay with that.
But you know, this particular childwas adopted by grandma as well,
and she's still as a teenager,asks those questions of why didn't my dad
want me? Why wasn't I goodenough for that? Why didn't he fight
for me? And it's heartbreaking.It's really heartbreaking because no child should ever
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ask themselves that question. They shouldn't. But there's so many kids out there
like that. Do you know ourteenagers are probably our number one group of
kids that that we really truly needadvocates for. It's and I was talking
to you know, your colleague hereearlier of what it's like to age out
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of the system at eighteen. Mostof the time it's like, hey,
guess what, you're eighteen, Welcometo the world. Figure it out.
Yeah, and you think you knoweverything, but honestly you don't. You
don't And these kids sometimes you know, they want to go to college,
but they don't have that support,or they age out of the system not
knowing how to cook, how toclean the toilet, how to just do
common everyday things. And so whatour cost of program does is we have
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a special program called College Docket.College Docket works with kids interested in college.
Right now, only three percent ofthese kids take on that benefit of
going to college. So we havea partnership with Texas and I'm San Antonio
Alamo Colleges and UTSA where we willprovide that continuous support and start looking at
colleges even from the age of thirteen. And it's wonderful to see them and
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say like, hey, you knowChristmas break back in the day, if
you were in college, the campusclosed down for Christmas. Yep, you
had to figure out a place togo. And so one of the things
that this program has helped is,hey, if you are or were in
foster care and you're in college,we'll keep that campus open for you.
We'll keep that room open for you. And our advocates just do tremendous things.
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We're about to we're renovating our building, which is wonderful program We're partnering
up with a program called Chef,So Chef is actually going to come in
and help our advocates the work withthe kids to figure out how to go
grocery shopping. You don't think aboutthat, but some kids at eighteen,
you don't. You twenty bucks islike oh man, who breeds? Or
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let me go to the corner store. Here buy some chips and soda.
And that's it right. There's nonutritional guidance there, no, not at
all. And so what we dois we want to teach them and prepare
them for adulthood. So we'll goto the store. Our plan is go
to the store, they come back, they cook the food together, and
then they break bread together in ourbuilding. And we've got so many plans
for our building that are just goingto continue to allow our program to thrive,
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but also the kids that are partof our organization. You know,
before we started recording the podcast,we were talking about community right the west
side of San Antonio. What usedto be like, what it is,
what's what it's like now? Generationsof families that there are still there.
You know, you have multi generationsthat you know own now own you know
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their great grandma's house or whatever,right, Like it's a house that's been
in the family, right, andthen everybody knows each other and everybody hangs
out on the weekends and front lacasa, you know, your neighbors down
the street, across the street,next door, et cetera. And so
GASA to me sounds like it's it'sit's it's it's community. Right. You're
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you're building this community or continuing thatsense of community for this child so they
feel like they belong somewhere versus wejust plucked away from your parents because not
because they're doing but the parents iswrongdoing or whatever the reason, right,
But you're putting them in a positiveenvironment, in a positive community exactly.
And that's what we want to do, right. You're right, it's not
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their fault. They didn't do anythingwrong to be part of this. And
we want our Gasa to be agasa, you know, we want that
funny live and that was just,you know, it just it's been like
that for a while as far asthe name. But as our building grows
and expands, that's what we wantthem to come into our building and feel
safe. This past weekend we hada Christmas event that we did and the
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kids got to come to the building. We had generous donations come through and
the kids actually when Christmas shopping,the kids themselves when Christmas shopping and they
shopped for their siblings, they shoppedfor the Awlita for their their theo and
it was just it's giving them thatchoice, that power of choice again because
it going too foster care, that'staken away, but coming in even just
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the smallest thing. So they gotto pick out gifts and they got to
wrap them. Man, they walkedout of there with a big old smile
and one of the kids came backand said, this is the most cheerful
place I've been in. Oh,and it's it's heartbreaking to me because it's
like you're a kid. Yeah,you know, you're you're a kid.
You should have this every day.But I'll see as soon. It's a
sense of familia, you know.It's if you're having a bad day,
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you don't have to tell me what'swrong, just sit with me. And
that's what causes. Do they providethat consistency, that support and that trust.
I meant to ask throughout the processwhen when a child is is uh
within Gasa's system, and there's anadvocate there for them. Is are there
the services there for the child?Like? Is there some is there therapy?
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Is there someone that can speak toother than their advocate? What and
you already mentioned the educational stuff isawesome, but what else is happening there?
So services are put in place byDepartment of Family and Protective Services.
What we ACASA do is we ensurethat those things are happening. So if
the child is supposed to be atherapy and they're not going, well,
why let's look at you sustainability ofthat family. So if grandma's like,
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hey, like I've got four otherkids and they've got all this other stuff,
like what can we do to helpsustain that? And that the child
is receiving therapy? So the servicesare there, they're just not things that
we ourselves do. We are lookingat something called Project Launch, which will
actually be a therapist that follows thatchild from beginning to end. Because what
happens in foster care is you comein, you're you know, foster home
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number one, You go to onetherapist and then you move to foster home
number two and number three and that'sanother one. Right, So you're having
to retell your story. Again,what Project Launch will do is that will
be a consistent therapist as well.So that is a partnership that we have
with another community partner that we're reallylooking and exciting to launch. But overall,
I mean it's it is a veryunique volunteer opportunity, very very unique.
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And as far as services, becauseyou mentioned that, and for those
of y'all listening as well, it'snot just about becoming a volunteer, but
we are a resource in the community. So say, you know, it
is unfortunate that your family encounters thesituation of being under Department of Family Protective
Services. If you're an aunt oran uncle, you can request that the
case worker look into assigning a costato your case. It's free of charge.
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We don't charge anything. It's notan additional fee or anything. The
case worker can make this request.The attorney for the child can make a
request and say, hey, Judge, we really need a cost on this
case. And depending on what theneeds of that case, we will look
into that and make sure that wetry to have an advocate on that case.
So it's not just hey, we'rehere to tell you that we need
volunteers but we're here to tell youthat we're also a resource in the community.
(24:52):
Right, if you can recap againhow one can get involved. What's
the website? What's the first absolutely? So how do they get in touch
with le recruiting and training? Sowww dot GASA, dash SATX dot org.
Okay, right, or you cangoogle Child Advocates and Antonio because everybody
googles everything. All right, ChildAdvocates San Antonio. Look us up and
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talk to our staff. So LauraSutton is our recruitment manager, and she
will walk you. She's the mostwonderful person in the world. She'll walk
you through the process and get youan into information session. Once you attend
our information session, we've got youfrom there. We'll walk you through each
step of the way. I mentionedearlier on the podcast that you know,
uh, whenever we see something crazyon the news or on social media about
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kids being affected or getting hurt,you know, don't just don't just rant
about it online. Don't think you'remaking a difference just with a simple hashtag.
No, get involved. Make adifference in a child's life by being
there for them. If you aretruly upset about what's happening to kids out
there, do something, actually dosomething about it, right, get involved
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with GASA reach out, sign upit. Not only are you making a
change in that child's life, you'realso making an impact on your own life.
Yeah, absolutely, because you're doinggood. And that's what we hear
from our advocates. A lot ofthe times you're like, I want to
do this to help the lives ofkids, but they walk out of that
program like seeing like, man,this changed my life. Yeah, you
you you learn to see it froma different lens and appreciate what you have
(26:25):
as well. I would. Iwould assume it also makes you think about
how, you know, how wewere raised, right, like wow,
like these kids go through stuff,right, maybe not the stuff I mean
well not let me get Yeah,we had a different upbringing today because of
just society, technology or really technologyand and whatever else you know is happening
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out there that that affects kids nowadays. There's a lot. Kids have to
deal with a lot, and asan adult, you know, we don't
we don't. I don't think weget it half the time, Like we
don't know what kids are really goingthrough nowadays. Yeah, it is difficult,
and we deal with kids from agesof zero to eighteen years of age,
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and the advocacy that we provide forthese different groups looks different. Like
I said, with teens, we'repreparing them for adult living. For you
know, the younger ones, it'simmediate services and trying to help that.
But you're right, this is notjust you know, oh, you know,
grandma throw a chunk l at you, and now it's like I'm going
to call CPS, Like this ismore than that. And coming out of
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COVID, we have seen cases whereit's been you know, these cases look
a lot different than they did priorto COVID, and we need advocates.
That's the biggest need. Everyone says, you know, what do you need?
We need advocates. We need peopleto step up and say, hey,
you know what, I'm going todo something. I'm going to do
it and we'll support you. We'vegot a wonderful training manager, jose Gvarra,
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who will call and they check inweekly on our advocates that are in
training, just like, hey,because it is tough stuff. Don't talk
about domestic violence. We talk aboutdifferent things and it's just able to say
like, man, like that wastough. Yeah. So but if it's
tough for you and you think thatit's hard, Imagine the kid. Imagine
the kids. Imagine what they justsaw, what they heard, what they
went through, what they felt.So if they if they've got that and
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and we can do something to help, why not? Why not you can
do something to help, get involvedwith CASA, make a difference in a
child's life right here in our owncommunity in San Antonio. Again, that
website is www dot CASA dash sA t X dot org or Google Child
Advocate San Antonio. Or for forcoming in for this episode and the information
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that we know folks are going tolisten to and hopefully we'll take and make
a difference in a child's life.Yeah, thank you. This was another
me San Antonio Community Voices podcast fromone O four five Latino Hits. Don't
forget to share this podcast with afriend. iHeartRadio and one O four five
(29:10):
Latino Hits probably serve our San Antoniocommunity.