This course will discuss advocacy for individuals affected by the child welfare system who have unique needs as a result of poverty, race and ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation and gender. This course also discusses the history of the child welfare system, bias and opportunities to be intentional when advocating through difficult cases. CASAs regularly advocate for children, parents and families who have a wide array of lived experiences they may not have experienced themselves. Strengthening Core Advocacy offers an opportunity to learn about some of the difficulties people encounter in our society, and the needs they may have in their search for safety and stability within and beyond the child welfare system.
This course was created in partnership with people across the CASA network in Texas, whose experience is reflected in this course. This course was also made possible in part by a grant from National CASA. We hope that you’ll take these valuable tools and lived experiences to implement and refer to on your cases.