July 9, 2024 • 22 mins
Advocacy in Motion Red River - In this episode, we spotlight CASA of Denison, Texas, a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for children in foster care. Discover the vital role they play in our community and how they make a difference in young lives. Proudly sponsored by Niagara Water Conservation Company, we bring you inspiring stories of local impact.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
Welcome to Advocacy in Motion, theRed River edition. We are here at
the wonderful Split Window podcast studios indowntown Dennison to give a vision and a
voice to nonprofit organizations and individuals makinga difference in the Grayson County area.
And before I introduce my guest today, I want to thank our presenting sponsored,
(00:30):
Niagara Conservation. Niagara is the leadingmanufacturer and distributor of water saving,
cost saving plumbing products and we reallyappreciate their support of over fifty non profit
organizations that have been featured on Advocacyin Motion, including the twelve Racing County
nonprofits featured on this podcast throughout thesummer, so we want to say thank
(00:52):
you again to Niagara. My guesttoday is James Hamilton. Thank you for
having us on. So glad you'rehere. Good, welcome to us,
and tell us what you do.Your title CASA is executive director Director of
CASA. And where are you locatedin this area? We are in Sherman,
(01:14):
Texas. Where downtown it one hundredor excuse me, one our East
Jones Street, So we are rightthere downtown Caddy Corner from the courthouse.
Okay, well, very good.Tell us about CASA. They've been around
a while. I know they're ina lot of areas. Tell us about
the background of CASA. What youguys do your mission? Well, CASA
(01:34):
in Grayson County, we've been aroundsince nineteen ninety three. Judy McGraw was
one of our first volunteers. Soanybody this local probably knows who Judy is.
But our local program started in nineteenninety three. The original CASA it
(01:55):
started in nineteen seventy seven with JudgeSoakup out of Seattle, and that's really
what started started this this this changein in the United States, and and
and court advocacy for kids. Okay, he is court appointing special advocacy,
Yes, kids. Tell us alittle bit about that overall program. I
(02:15):
know there's there's national CASO, wehave a Texas Texas and then the local
branches. How do those work together? And what's that's a basic format of
CASA. So, like you said, and thank you for for for pointing
that I were court appointed special advocates. So we work in the child welfare
system. If a child is removedfor abuse or neglect. What we do
(02:35):
is we work to train volunteers supportthe volunteers UH in in serving them throughout
that court process. So it's itcan it can range from UH seeing a
child UH at their placement or testifyingin court. It can be a number
of different things. But the wholewhole purpose is to UH to provide the
(02:59):
best interest or or inform the coreto the best interest to that child.
And as I understand that, yourvolunteers pretty much stay with that child represent
that child for periods of time.I mean, yes, it's an ongoing
process. Yeah, it's it.The process goes for about eighteen months,
that's usually the standard eighteen months.If a child is not able to be
(03:21):
placed permanently and mean replaced pervarately eitheradopted or returned back home, then in
that case can go on. Itcould go on for several years. We
tend to see that with teenagers.It can be difficult to place a teenager.
Sometimes tell me a little b aboutyour background. How did you get
(03:43):
involved with the costs and where youare? So I my story. I
started in the juvenile justice system whenI was in college. I had I
was working at a at a ata gas station and one of the guys
there was working full time for thehunt County Detention Center Juvenile Detention Center,
(04:05):
and and so I thought, well, you know, let me give that
a try and let's see see whathappens there. And uh, you know,
I really fell in love working withkids that are at risk. Uh.
So I did that, came overhere to Grayson County, worked at
the juvenile department in Grayson County andand it and it led me here.
Uh and and so it's it's alittle bit of a change. And worked
(04:27):
with at risk youth that are inone area, the juvenile justice system,
but uh, you know, ittranslates over into the child welfare system as
well when you're when you're looking at, you know, with what these children
are experiencing, the trauma that theyexperience and and really the the the support
that's needed for them to be successful. And how long have you been with
(04:50):
COSMO since twenty nineteen, so we'regoing five years years? And you mentioned
the child welfare system and I knowthat's extremely complicated. Yes it is,
and I know it seems to bealways changing. Tell us a little bit
how you interact with that and whereyou are today with the system. Okay,
so the child welfare system, ithas now changed over the Health and
(05:13):
Human Services and it's under the Healthand Human Services Commission. It is Department
of Family Services here in Texas,and we primarily work with kids that have
been removed for abuse and neglect andthey're placed in conservatorship or they're placed in
a home outside of their original home. And so our goal is at the
(05:42):
end of the day, is toget these kids either back at home or
in a permanent placement. It's changeda little bit over time. In twenty
seventeen, the state of Texas decidedto go into what they call community based
care, which is a way oflooking at child the child welfare system.
(06:03):
And the ultimate goal is is forkids that are removed from, say from
Grayson County, they're to remain inGrayson County so that they have that support
system that maybe they had in theirschool, church, or just really anybody
in the community that they may havemade a connection with. In twenty twenty
(06:25):
one, and I think it wasthe eighty seventh Legislatives session where Grayson County
was picked a part of several othercounties to be a part of start this
transition. And so another difference inthat CBC is is that it takes that
(06:45):
conservatorship that part of the child welfaresystem that we work in, and it
puts it under a private organization whichthey call an SSCC or a single source
Continuum contractor. And what that basicallymeans is it is just it falls under
a private organization. Now, soit went from a state organization to a
(07:05):
private organization. And we're going throughthat transition now that that full transition started
in March of this year, sowe're seeing we're seeing the challenges of that.
Is it an improvement? Uh?And then the new changes and the
new challenges. Do you think thisis a hidden in the right direction.
It's too early to tell what we'vewhat we've noticed. We are the I
(07:30):
think we're the third round of countiesthat are that are going through this transition.
And and what what we do knowis, UH, it's going to
take two or three years for itto settle settle out the advantage and I
think that well we hope to seethis is that kids stay closer. Right
now, we have kids uh,anywhere in the state of Texas. We've
(07:54):
had some in Beaumont, we havesome in San Antonio, Houston, Austin,
and so so kids are being removedfrom Grayson County and and they're traveling
five or six hours away to acompletely new environment. Yeah, and so
that's that's really Uh if if thatcan be a success and the community based
care really takes off and kids canstay close to home, that's going to
(08:16):
be a huge win for the kidsthat we serve. I can see that
it would be. I didn't realizethat they could be that far apart or
we moved that far out. Yes, yeah, your employees excuse saying you're
volunteers. I know they are sointegral to what you're doing. And we've
been fortunate to work and talk withcosts in other areas and just see the
(08:37):
dedication of those volunteers and stuff tous about you know see, Oh,
I love talking about our volunteers.I love it. They are our heartbeat.
Gosh, they are the most integralpart of our program. The heart
and the passion that they carry isis it's incredible. We have right now,
(09:03):
we're sitting at about forty two volunteers. And these are people that give
up their time to serve these kids. They testify in court and and and
the passion that they bring and theimpact that they make is something that a
lot of times they don't see,but you can see the you can see
(09:26):
the heart that they give. Iknow, I know you can do that.
How long is it? How doyou find volunteers or what's required to
be a volunteer, or how canand we'll come back this many times,
but tell us how you can getin touch to become a volunteer to your
website or yeah, we have ourwebsite. It's kasa ww dot cosa,
(09:48):
Grayson dot org. Uh, wehave just about any one of our the
pages that we have. It'll havebecome a costa. You have to be
twenty one years of age, beable to back pass a background check,
and then you just got to havethat heart to want to serve. Uh.
It's a lot of times we getpeople that are interested in volunteering and
(10:09):
they'll go, well, you know, I think i'd be too I'd get
too connected to the child and itwould be too hard for me. Uh.
And and I may mention this acouple of times. Leanne, one
of our volunteers, one of ourveteran volunteers. She she quotes this,
and I love telling volunteers, potentialvolunteers, you want to get too connected,
(10:31):
you know you really it's okay.It's okay to do that because when
you do that, you make animpact. What are do you have some
really success stories? Is there somesomething that's your I know you're proud of
all of it. I know,I know you have volunteers are proud of
all of this and certainly should be. But something special that that you can
tell us about special case or specialresults. You know, we've had we've
(10:54):
had a number of a number ofstories where we have parents that are they're
really really struggling. Of course,they their kids are taken from them for
extended period of time and and theyreally do the work two to get over
(11:16):
those hurdles and improve themselves. Andand when you see a parent that it
starts off in the system that isuh, that just really struggling. And
then by the end they're they're empowered, uh and they and they they have
a support system and they feel like, you know, for once that they're
they're gonna be okay. Being ableto see them be reunited with a child
(11:39):
that you know has also gone throughthe the trauma of being removed, but
is has it has to overcome someof those those traumas of of what they've
dealt with and being able to seethem come back together and and be reunited
is I think that is the mostincredible uh ex experience that that we see.
(12:01):
I think only second to that iswhen you see a child be adopted
and placed them into a home thatthey've really never been in. Uh and
and and and when I say neverbeen in, but never been in that
truly loving, supportive home, andand when you see the smiles on their
face, and uh you see thethe fresh parents you know, looking at
them like you know, look atthe look at the the future that they
(12:26):
have, and and and and andwhere they're going to be able to go
in life after all the things thatthey've been through. It's just it's incredible.
Tell us a little bit about theadoption process itself, how you guys
are involved, and what some peopleout there might need to know about it
if they want to adopt or wantto learn about it. Uh tell us
little about how that works. UhSo it's it is a part of the
system. There are adoption agencies now. It is all done through private adoption
(12:52):
agencies. Not that there's one betterthan the other, but I always refer
to c K. It's it's alocal adoption agent. But if you're interested
that I would reach out to oneof those. But you know, like
I mentioned earlier, as an eighteenmonth process, So if a child is
removed, you know, parents rightfullyso have an opportunity for eighteen months to
(13:13):
to to work services and hopefully,you know, get their family back.
If not, then at that pointa judge is going to make a decision
that that child needs to go needsto be adopted. So there's two parts
of it. For adoption or excuseme, for foster care. You can
be a foster to adopt placement,which is ultimately the end goal. Would
(13:37):
you have an opportunity to do toadopt a child, or you can be
just a foster placement, And thatis for children that are that are going
through the system and just need aloving home while they're going through the system.
That's probably the most important and themost needed in our community now are
our homes that are are just goingto open their home for as long long
(14:00):
as it's needed. Uh and uh, you know, support the people involved,
especially the parents, and hopefully getthese child children back home if at
all possible. There is some licensing. I'm not real familiar with the licensing.
But if there is a huge needtalking about the CBC community based care
(14:22):
h the only way Texas is goingto reach their goal and having placements within
the child's removal area is if wehave foster homes here. Uh and and
there are number and I think we'relooking at don't quote me on the number,
but I believe it's about twenty fivetwenty five kids that if we could,
(14:46):
if we could find foster's foster homes, licensed foster homes for those kids,
we could have every child remain inGrayson County. That great, Yes,
you keep the kids here and withthe family. Yes, that is
something. Else, what kind ofsupport do you need from the community.
I know we always nonprofits, there'salways fundraising, always events or things or
(15:11):
programs to get involved in volunteers.Tell us about what how the community can
help you. First of all isbecome a become an advocate. That is
the most important. Right now,we have two children in care that do
not have a have a costa andso what we want to serve every child
that goes through the system. Andso if you have the heart to do
(15:33):
that, we want to get youinvolved. We also have a helping hearts,
which is a it's it's a littlebit it's not an advocate role,
but it's it's really there to supportadvocates that are in the field. Excuse
me. We've a lot of thetime we transport children, we're able to
(15:56):
or our volunteers are able to transportchildren. Uh, And so we always
like to have another person in thecar or you know, especially for our
teenagers and and and uh preteen kiddos. A lot of times when they're in
a placement, they want to goand they want to do something, and
so we're able to go and pickup a child, take them somewhere to
(16:18):
and whether that's just to get icecream, go out to eat, go
shopping, uh, And it's alwaysthere. It's always nice to have a
helping heart there that can can dothat with them, so that there's you
know, there's multiple people for thatchild to talk to. So a lot
of times if we have a volunteerthat is interested in volunteering and becoming a
(16:41):
cost of advocate, uh, thenwe will say, well, you know,
how about your spouse, does yourspouse would your spouse like to be
a part of it as well?You know, let's get them trained to
be helping hearts. You guys cando it together, and it can be
an opportunity for a family, uhto to to to make an impact on
a child. Okay, that's that'sterrific. I know there's you know,
(17:03):
there's got to be people out there. I want to get involved. I
know volunteering is so much fun.It's it benefits the volunteer and the and
the cause that's near and dear totheir heart. And we do want to
encourage people to whatever it is thatthey would like to help out. There's
always someone in the community that canuse the help or they're doing what if
I missed? Is there something you'dlike to add? And then please tell
(17:26):
us anything we've missed. I knowwe've had some notes and we talked about
some things. Uh what's what's comingup in the future. Is there anything
come in the future that started thereWe've got We've got a couple of things
going on in July. July fifteenthstarts a new training session, so it's
always important we want to have that. Uh So, if anybody is interested,
they can go to our website,they can fill out an application and
(17:51):
and we'll try to get them intothis next training it is it's a thirty
hours worth of training. It's usuallytwo days a week for a few hours
the evening and and so that wouldbe the next opportunity to get involved.
We we also have a cost ofcloset and we there's been such a great
(18:14):
response for this closet. In thiscloset, we have toys, clothing,
it supplies uh for for any childthat's in care. Uh. This last
year, it was an overwhelming numberof people that provided for this closet,
uh, so much so that wedon't have enough room uh anymore to hold
(18:36):
all these things, and we can'tget it out fast enough. So we're
we're going to hold a garage sellon August eighth, and all that money
is going to go into our coosetcloset fund. What we've found out and
what what our advocates really speak ofwhen it comes to being able to help
kids out in you know, whetherit's clothes or toys for that child to
(19:00):
be able to pick out a toyor pick out their own clothing. And
so what we ask and what thiswill go to the garage sale or any
sort of donation we get. Weget gift cards for the kids and our
volunteers are able to go shopping withthem. Uh and they're able to to
pick out their own stuff and andfor them. For for our kids,
it's incredibly important because it for fora time they don't especially going through this
(19:25):
process and being removed from their home, a lot of thing is out of
it, a lot of things areout of their control. And this is
one one small opportunity for us togo. Okay, look, you you
have control of this. You gopick out something that you want. You
know, you've been you've been toldwhere you have to go, where you
have to live. You know,let us do one small thing and let
(19:47):
you pick out pick out clothes.And it's it's it's important for our kids
to be able to have that opportunity. That is that is terrific. Again,
tell us how people get involved,how they can donate to the close
or they come to the ground saleand get in touch more time. Okay,
so we've anything that we we havegoing on, you can always go
to our website. We do havea Facebook page. I forget about throwing
(20:11):
that out there. We have aFacebook page that you can like and and
and we put information on on thereof of our events. We also have
a cost of support if you wantto become an official cost of supporter UH
and just donate monthly. Maybe youdon't have enough time to volunteer but want
to be involved. UH. Thatis also on our website and you can
do a monthly donation. We alsohave we have our annual fundraiser. It's
(20:40):
this will be twenty seventh year ofour Chocolate Indulgence, which is pretty popular
in this area. It'll be inFebruary. We don't have the exact date
yet, but we're going to It'llbe somewhere in Grayson County. UH.
It's a it's a night dinner dancing. Well, we'll get a d jay
(21:00):
UH. And then there's a twohuge tables full of of a number of
different chocolates. We'll do an auctionout of them, and all the all
the funding comes UH comes right backto our our program so that we can
we can serve the kids. Wedo get just as a lot of people
ask if you know what kind offunding we get. We do get some
(21:23):
federal and state funding, but usuallythat is enough to cover staffing so that
we can we can so we canstaff our our program. Anything else,
it goes directly to to serving ourkids. So the ability to the more
funding we're able to get in,the more we're able to do for for
(21:45):
our kiddos, that is, thatis terrific. I appreciate you being here,
and I mentioned earlier about Niagar's contributionjust supporting this show and their support
of nonprofit organizations, but we alsowant to mention that they are also an
innovative in bathroom experiences, in hightech hygiene for the future. So if
(22:06):
you rate upgrade your bathroom experience andrevolutionize your hygiene experience, say hello to
a more expressing, refreshing experience.I wanting to read this right because they
told me to with a Niagre's hydrotechwith a seat. You can get yours
today on Amazon because Niagara has savedyou a seat. And thank you Niagara
for allowing us to visit with JamesKassa, and thank you so much for
(22:29):
being here and sharing your story withus. Thank you, thank you for
having us. I really appreciate theopportunity. All right, very good,
Thanks, thank you
Welcome to Advocacy in Motion, theRed River edition. We are here at
the wonderful Split Window podcast studios indowntown Dennison to give a vision and a
voice to nonprofit organizations and individuals makinga difference in the Grayson County area.
And before I introduce my guest today, I want to thank our presenting sponsored,
(00:30):
Niagara Conservation. Niagara is the leadingmanufacturer and distributor of water saving,
cost saving plumbing products and we reallyappreciate their support of over fifty non profit
organizations that have been featured on Advocacyin Motion, including the twelve Racing County
nonprofits featured on this podcast throughout thesummer, so we want to say thank
(00:52):
you again to Niagara. My guesttoday is James Hamilton. Thank you for
having us on. So glad you'rehere. Good, welcome to us,
and tell us what you do.Your title CASA is executive director Director of
CASA. And where are you locatedin this area? We are in Sherman,
(01:14):
Texas. Where downtown it one hundredor excuse me, one our East
Jones Street, So we are rightthere downtown Caddy Corner from the courthouse.
Okay, well, very good.Tell us about CASA. They've been around
a while. I know they're ina lot of areas. Tell us about
the background of CASA. What youguys do your mission? Well, CASA
(01:34):
in Grayson County, we've been aroundsince nineteen ninety three. Judy McGraw was
one of our first volunteers. Soanybody this local probably knows who Judy is.
But our local program started in nineteenninety three. The original CASA it
(01:55):
started in nineteen seventy seven with JudgeSoakup out of Seattle, and that's really
what started started this this this changein in the United States, and and
and court advocacy for kids. Okay, he is court appointing special advocacy,
Yes, kids. Tell us alittle bit about that overall program. I
(02:15):
know there's there's national CASO, wehave a Texas Texas and then the local
branches. How do those work together? And what's that's a basic format of
CASA. So, like you said, and thank you for for for pointing
that I were court appointed special advocates. So we work in the child welfare
system. If a child is removedfor abuse or neglect. What we do
(02:35):
is we work to train volunteers supportthe volunteers UH in in serving them throughout
that court process. So it's itcan it can range from UH seeing a
child UH at their placement or testifyingin court. It can be a number
of different things. But the wholewhole purpose is to UH to provide the
(02:59):
best interest or or inform the coreto the best interest to that child.
And as I understand that, yourvolunteers pretty much stay with that child represent
that child for periods of time.I mean, yes, it's an ongoing
process. Yeah, it's it.The process goes for about eighteen months,
that's usually the standard eighteen months.If a child is not able to be
(03:21):
placed permanently and mean replaced pervarately eitheradopted or returned back home, then in
that case can go on. Itcould go on for several years. We
tend to see that with teenagers.It can be difficult to place a teenager.
Sometimes tell me a little b aboutyour background. How did you get
(03:43):
involved with the costs and where youare? So I my story. I
started in the juvenile justice system whenI was in college. I had I
was working at a at a ata gas station and one of the guys
there was working full time for thehunt County Detention Center Juvenile Detention Center,
(04:05):
and and so I thought, well, you know, let me give that
a try and let's see see whathappens there. And uh, you know,
I really fell in love working withkids that are at risk. Uh.
So I did that, came overhere to Grayson County, worked at
the juvenile department in Grayson County andand it and it led me here.
Uh and and so it's it's alittle bit of a change. And worked
(04:27):
with at risk youth that are inone area, the juvenile justice system,
but uh, you know, ittranslates over into the child welfare system as
well when you're when you're looking at, you know, with what these children
are experiencing, the trauma that theyexperience and and really the the the support
that's needed for them to be successful. And how long have you been with
(04:50):
COSMO since twenty nineteen, so we'regoing five years years? And you mentioned
the child welfare system and I knowthat's extremely complicated. Yes it is,
and I know it seems to bealways changing. Tell us a little bit
how you interact with that and whereyou are today with the system. Okay,
so the child welfare system, ithas now changed over the Health and
(05:13):
Human Services and it's under the Healthand Human Services Commission. It is Department
of Family Services here in Texas,and we primarily work with kids that have
been removed for abuse and neglect andthey're placed in conservatorship or they're placed in
a home outside of their original home. And so our goal is at the
(05:42):
end of the day, is toget these kids either back at home or
in a permanent placement. It's changeda little bit over time. In twenty
seventeen, the state of Texas decidedto go into what they call community based
care, which is a way oflooking at child the child welfare system.
(06:03):
And the ultimate goal is is forkids that are removed from, say from
Grayson County, they're to remain inGrayson County so that they have that support
system that maybe they had in theirschool, church, or just really anybody
in the community that they may havemade a connection with. In twenty twenty
(06:25):
one, and I think it wasthe eighty seventh Legislatives session where Grayson County
was picked a part of several othercounties to be a part of start this
transition. And so another difference inthat CBC is is that it takes that
(06:45):
conservatorship that part of the child welfaresystem that we work in, and it
puts it under a private organization whichthey call an SSCC or a single source
Continuum contractor. And what that basicallymeans is it is just it falls under
a private organization. Now, soit went from a state organization to a
(07:05):
private organization. And we're going throughthat transition now that that full transition started
in March of this year, sowe're seeing we're seeing the challenges of that.
Is it an improvement? Uh?And then the new changes and the
new challenges. Do you think thisis a hidden in the right direction.
It's too early to tell what we'vewhat we've noticed. We are the I
(07:30):
think we're the third round of countiesthat are that are going through this transition.
And and what what we do knowis, UH, it's going to
take two or three years for itto settle settle out the advantage and I
think that well we hope to seethis is that kids stay closer. Right
now, we have kids uh,anywhere in the state of Texas. We've
(07:54):
had some in Beaumont, we havesome in San Antonio, Houston, Austin,
and so so kids are being removedfrom Grayson County and and they're traveling
five or six hours away to acompletely new environment. Yeah, and so
that's that's really Uh if if thatcan be a success and the community based
care really takes off and kids canstay close to home, that's going to
(08:16):
be a huge win for the kidsthat we serve. I can see that
it would be. I didn't realizethat they could be that far apart or
we moved that far out. Yes, yeah, your employees excuse saying you're
volunteers. I know they are sointegral to what you're doing. And we've
been fortunate to work and talk withcosts in other areas and just see the
(08:37):
dedication of those volunteers and stuff tous about you know see, Oh,
I love talking about our volunteers.I love it. They are our heartbeat.
Gosh, they are the most integralpart of our program. The heart
and the passion that they carry isis it's incredible. We have right now,
(09:03):
we're sitting at about forty two volunteers. And these are people that give
up their time to serve these kids. They testify in court and and and
the passion that they bring and theimpact that they make is something that a
lot of times they don't see,but you can see the you can see
(09:26):
the heart that they give. Iknow, I know you can do that.
How long is it? How doyou find volunteers or what's required to
be a volunteer, or how canand we'll come back this many times,
but tell us how you can getin touch to become a volunteer to your
website or yeah, we have ourwebsite. It's kasa ww dot cosa,
(09:48):
Grayson dot org. Uh, wehave just about any one of our the
pages that we have. It'll havebecome a costa. You have to be
twenty one years of age, beable to back pass a background check,
and then you just got to havethat heart to want to serve. Uh.
It's a lot of times we getpeople that are interested in volunteering and
(10:09):
they'll go, well, you know, I think i'd be too I'd get
too connected to the child and itwould be too hard for me. Uh.
And and I may mention this acouple of times. Leanne, one
of our volunteers, one of ourveteran volunteers. She she quotes this,
and I love telling volunteers, potentialvolunteers, you want to get too connected,
(10:31):
you know you really it's okay.It's okay to do that because when
you do that, you make animpact. What are do you have some
really success stories? Is there somesomething that's your I know you're proud of
all of it. I know,I know you have volunteers are proud of
all of this and certainly should be. But something special that that you can
tell us about special case or specialresults. You know, we've had we've
(10:54):
had a number of a number ofstories where we have parents that are they're
really really struggling. Of course,they their kids are taken from them for
extended period of time and and theyreally do the work two to get over
(11:16):
those hurdles and improve themselves. Andand when you see a parent that it
starts off in the system that isuh, that just really struggling. And
then by the end they're they're empowered, uh and they and they they have
a support system and they feel like, you know, for once that they're
they're gonna be okay. Being ableto see them be reunited with a child
(11:39):
that you know has also gone throughthe the trauma of being removed, but
is has it has to overcome someof those those traumas of of what they've
dealt with and being able to seethem come back together and and be reunited
is I think that is the mostincredible uh ex experience that that we see.
(12:01):
I think only second to that iswhen you see a child be adopted
and placed them into a home thatthey've really never been in. Uh and
and and and when I say neverbeen in, but never been in that
truly loving, supportive home, andand when you see the smiles on their
face, and uh you see thethe fresh parents you know, looking at
them like you know, look atthe look at the the future that they
(12:26):
have, and and and and andwhere they're going to be able to go
in life after all the things thatthey've been through. It's just it's incredible.
Tell us a little bit about theadoption process itself, how you guys
are involved, and what some peopleout there might need to know about it
if they want to adopt or wantto learn about it. Uh tell us
little about how that works. UhSo it's it is a part of the
system. There are adoption agencies now. It is all done through private adoption
(12:52):
agencies. Not that there's one betterthan the other, but I always refer
to c K. It's it's alocal adoption agent. But if you're interested
that I would reach out to oneof those. But you know, like
I mentioned earlier, as an eighteenmonth process, So if a child is
removed, you know, parents rightfullyso have an opportunity for eighteen months to
(13:13):
to to work services and hopefully,you know, get their family back.
If not, then at that pointa judge is going to make a decision
that that child needs to go needsto be adopted. So there's two parts
of it. For adoption or excuseme, for foster care. You can
be a foster to adopt placement,which is ultimately the end goal. Would
(13:37):
you have an opportunity to do toadopt a child, or you can be
just a foster placement, And thatis for children that are that are going
through the system and just need aloving home while they're going through the system.
That's probably the most important and themost needed in our community now are
our homes that are are just goingto open their home for as long long
(14:00):
as it's needed. Uh and uh, you know, support the people involved,
especially the parents, and hopefully getthese child children back home if at
all possible. There is some licensing. I'm not real familiar with the licensing.
But if there is a huge needtalking about the CBC community based care
(14:22):
h the only way Texas is goingto reach their goal and having placements within
the child's removal area is if wehave foster homes here. Uh and and
there are number and I think we'relooking at don't quote me on the number,
but I believe it's about twenty fivetwenty five kids that if we could,
(14:46):
if we could find foster's foster homes, licensed foster homes for those kids,
we could have every child remain inGrayson County. That great, Yes,
you keep the kids here and withthe family. Yes, that is
something. Else, what kind ofsupport do you need from the community.
I know we always nonprofits, there'salways fundraising, always events or things or
(15:11):
programs to get involved in volunteers.Tell us about what how the community can
help you. First of all isbecome a become an advocate. That is
the most important. Right now,we have two children in care that do
not have a have a costa andso what we want to serve every child
that goes through the system. Andso if you have the heart to do
(15:33):
that, we want to get youinvolved. We also have a helping hearts,
which is a it's it's a littlebit it's not an advocate role,
but it's it's really there to supportadvocates that are in the field. Excuse
me. We've a lot of thetime we transport children, we're able to
(15:56):
or our volunteers are able to transportchildren. Uh, And so we always
like to have another person in thecar or you know, especially for our
teenagers and and and uh preteen kiddos. A lot of times when they're in
a placement, they want to goand they want to do something, and
so we're able to go and pickup a child, take them somewhere to
(16:18):
and whether that's just to get icecream, go out to eat, go
shopping, uh, And it's alwaysthere. It's always nice to have a
helping heart there that can can dothat with them, so that there's you
know, there's multiple people for thatchild to talk to. So a lot
of times if we have a volunteerthat is interested in volunteering and becoming a
(16:41):
cost of advocate, uh, thenwe will say, well, you know,
how about your spouse, does yourspouse would your spouse like to be
a part of it as well?You know, let's get them trained to
be helping hearts. You guys cando it together, and it can be
an opportunity for a family, uhto to to to make an impact on
a child. Okay, that's that'sterrific. I know there's you know,
(17:03):
there's got to be people out there. I want to get involved. I
know volunteering is so much fun.It's it benefits the volunteer and the and
the cause that's near and dear totheir heart. And we do want to
encourage people to whatever it is thatthey would like to help out. There's
always someone in the community that canuse the help or they're doing what if
I missed? Is there something you'dlike to add? And then please tell
(17:26):
us anything we've missed. I knowwe've had some notes and we talked about
some things. Uh what's what's comingup in the future. Is there anything
come in the future that started thereWe've got We've got a couple of things
going on in July. July fifteenthstarts a new training session, so it's
always important we want to have that. Uh So, if anybody is interested,
they can go to our website,they can fill out an application and
(17:51):
and we'll try to get them intothis next training it is it's a thirty
hours worth of training. It's usuallytwo days a week for a few hours
the evening and and so that wouldbe the next opportunity to get involved.
We we also have a cost ofcloset and we there's been such a great
(18:14):
response for this closet. In thiscloset, we have toys, clothing,
it supplies uh for for any childthat's in care. Uh. This last
year, it was an overwhelming numberof people that provided for this closet,
uh, so much so that wedon't have enough room uh anymore to hold
(18:36):
all these things, and we can'tget it out fast enough. So we're
we're going to hold a garage sellon August eighth, and all that money
is going to go into our coosetcloset fund. What we've found out and
what what our advocates really speak ofwhen it comes to being able to help
kids out in you know, whetherit's clothes or toys for that child to
(19:00):
be able to pick out a toyor pick out their own clothing. And
so what we ask and what thiswill go to the garage sale or any
sort of donation we get. Weget gift cards for the kids and our
volunteers are able to go shopping withthem. Uh and they're able to to
pick out their own stuff and andfor them. For for our kids,
it's incredibly important because it for fora time they don't especially going through this
(19:25):
process and being removed from their home, a lot of thing is out of
it, a lot of things areout of their control. And this is
one one small opportunity for us togo. Okay, look, you you
have control of this. You gopick out something that you want. You
know, you've been you've been toldwhere you have to go, where you
have to live. You know,let us do one small thing and let
(19:47):
you pick out pick out clothes.And it's it's it's important for our kids
to be able to have that opportunity. That is that is terrific. Again,
tell us how people get involved,how they can donate to the close
or they come to the ground saleand get in touch more time. Okay,
so we've anything that we we havegoing on, you can always go
to our website. We do havea Facebook page. I forget about throwing
(20:11):
that out there. We have aFacebook page that you can like and and
and we put information on on thereof of our events. We also have
a cost of support if you wantto become an official cost of supporter UH
and just donate monthly. Maybe youdon't have enough time to volunteer but want
to be involved. UH. Thatis also on our website and you can
do a monthly donation. We alsohave we have our annual fundraiser. It's
(20:40):
this will be twenty seventh year ofour Chocolate Indulgence, which is pretty popular
in this area. It'll be inFebruary. We don't have the exact date
yet, but we're going to It'llbe somewhere in Grayson County. UH.
It's a it's a night dinner dancing. Well, we'll get a d jay
(21:00):
UH. And then there's a twohuge tables full of of a number of
different chocolates. We'll do an auctionout of them, and all the all
the funding comes UH comes right backto our our program so that we can
we can serve the kids. Wedo get just as a lot of people
ask if you know what kind offunding we get. We do get some
(21:23):
federal and state funding, but usuallythat is enough to cover staffing so that
we can we can so we canstaff our our program. Anything else,
it goes directly to to serving ourkids. So the ability to the more
funding we're able to get in,the more we're able to do for for
(21:45):
our kiddos, that is, thatis terrific. I appreciate you being here,
and I mentioned earlier about Niagar's contributionjust supporting this show and their support
of nonprofit organizations, but we alsowant to mention that they are also an
innovative in bathroom experiences, in hightech hygiene for the future. So if
(22:06):
you rate upgrade your bathroom experience andrevolutionize your hygiene experience, say hello to
a more expressing, refreshing experience.I wanting to read this right because they
told me to with a Niagre's hydrotechwith a seat. You can get yours
today on Amazon because Niagara has savedyou a seat. And thank you Niagara
for allowing us to visit with JamesKassa, and thank you so much for
(22:29):
being here and sharing your story withus. Thank you, thank you for
having us. I really appreciate theopportunity. All right, very good,
Thanks, thank you
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