Dallas CASA needs more bilingual Spanish-speaking volunteers to serve children who have been victims of abuse or neglect and are living in foster care.
Latinos represent 55% of the child population in Dallas County and 34% of children removed from unsafe homes, but only 13% of Dallas CASA volunteers are Latino.
For a child who speaks Spanish or has grown up in a Hispanic household, foster care can be an especially lonely and frightening place when there is a language and cultural barrier. A Dallas CASA volunteer who is bilingual can not only bring comfort to the child but foster better and more timely communication with parties on the case leading to better long-term outcomes for children and their families.
Dallas CASA is planning a special online recruitment event for 6-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 26. To register, email Nancy Nevarez at nnevarez@dallascasa.org.
Guests speakers will include Juan Nevarez, executive vice president at Scout Energy Partners, and Amanda Paredes, senior brand supervisor at The Infinite Agency. Nevarez and Parades will share their experiences as Dallas CASA volunteers and how being able to speak Spanish and understand the culture has allowed them a closer connection with families and children they are assigned to advocate for.
Dallas CASA serves children and families of all cultures, abilities, identities and backgrounds. The agency is committed to advocating for the best interest of all children in the foster care system and providing each child with the highest quality volunteer advocacy possible.
To meet this goal, Dallas CASA strives to recruit volunteers of diverse backgrounds so that our volunteers can reflect the diversity of children in the child welfare system.
Dallas CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) seeks to protect children, restore childhood and help child victims of abuse or neglect achieve their full potential.
The agency’s trained and supervised community volunteers are assigned by judges to advocate for the best interests of children who have experienced abuse or neglect and are living in the protective care of the state. For many children in foster care, their Dallas CASA volunteer is the only consistent, caring adult in their lives during a frightening, uncertain time.
Now in its 43rd year, Dallas CASA serves more children than any of the more than 900 CASA programs nationwide. While Dallas CASA envisions a day when all children experience safe and enriching childhoods, the agency currently is able to provide a child advocate for every Dallas child in need. In 2022, 1,324 Dallas CASA volunteers were assigned to advocate for 2,611 children in protective care. To learn more, visit dallascasa.org.
