CASA for Children of Essex County
CASA for Children of Essex County is aiming to expand its volunteer team so as to increase the number of foster youth served in Essex County.
April is Childhood Abuse Prevention Month. This month and throughout the year, CASA for Children of Essex County encourages everyone to play a role in making Essex County a safer home for children and families. By ensuring that families have the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to care for their children, we can help promote the social and emotional well-being of children and prevent child mistreatment within families and communities.
A reported 1,820 children died from abuse and neglect in the United States in federal fiscal year 2021, according to the latest national data. Child protective services investigated or responded to almost 4 million allegations of child maltreatment across the country, and a total 600,000 children were victims of child abuse with over 3,200 of those children residing in New Jersey.
Each year, CASA Essex strives to raise awareness about the impact child abuse has on children and society. Providing information about best practices that aid in building familial capacity through protective factors is key in helping families become more resilient. These factors are the strengths and resources that families can draw on during difficult times to shield them from life’s stressors, which provide them with the skills they need to parent children effectively, even under duress. Major protective factors include knowledge of parenting, knowledge of child development, parental resilience, social connections, and concrete supports.
During the month of April, National Child Abuse Prevention Month is more than just raising awareness about the reality of child abuse. It is about taking action to reduce it. Essex County can join in this national effort by providing our families with the support they need. Certain issues, such as a family’s neighborhood, income level, or other societal factors can make parenting more challenging. By reducing these vulnerabilities through strengths-based approaches that truly support families, we begin to mitigate child abuse and improve the future for struggling families.
To make child abuse less likely to occur, we need to invest in our community and our families. In Essex County, consider collaborating with family and strength-based focused organizations and programs such as CASA Essex. Becoming a CASA volunteer places community members in a unique position to serve foster youth at a deeper level. CASA volunteers lift the voices of our most vulnerable children and advocate objectively for their needs during the time they spend in foster care. Currently, there are substantially more foster children in need of a CASA volunteer than there are volunteers available.
All children deserve to grow up in safe, supportive environments. This National Child Abuse Prevention Month, help make this possible by learning more about what it means to become a CASA volunteer. For more information and resources, visit casaessex.org. Together, we can help change a child’s story.
