CSI co-star Jorja Fox (Sarah Sidle, Las Vegas forensic scientist) is doing a new CASA PSA in CBS primetime during CSI this Thursday night, November 15th at 9 p.m. (PST). Check you local TV listings for CSI airtime in your timezone.

Warm Regards,

Jim Clune
Chief Commmunications Officer
National CASA Association

Dear Colleagues:

We have been working on a new CBS Cares CASA public service announcement (PSA) featuring William Petersen, who stars as Gil Grissom in CBS TV’s top rated series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In addition to the PSA, CBS has offered to auction on eBay a prop from the show—a miniature of Grissom’s office, with all the funds going to National CASA. The miniature is valued by CBS at $25,000, the cost to build it. For those of us who don’t follow broadcast TV, CSI has been ranked as the number one or two show on TV for the last seven seasons. The average audience for CSI is 16 million viewers, and Nielsen Ratings projects 22 million viewers will be watching CSI’s season premiere next week.

I am very happy to tell you that a 10-second PSA promoting CASA volunteer advocacy and our eBay auction will be airing during CSI’s season premiere next Thursday, Sept. 27. The show airs at 9:00 p.m. In addition to the 10-second eBay CASA ad, we have produced both a 30-second and a 10-second CASA CBS Cares PSA featuring William Petersen. CBS will be placing these PSAs into network rotation shortly.

What’s more, eBay will be featuring our CASA auction on their website’s home page. Please note they have a rotating front page system, so you may not see it every time you go to eBay. Finally, next week eBay will be sending a blast email to 6 million of its subscribers featuring a link to our CASA auction page.

Please share this information with your staff, volunteers, board members and other supporters. Thank you for all your good work on behalf of children.

Warm regards,

Jim Clune
Chief Communications Officer

We live in a community surrounded by awesome beauty, between the lakes and the mountains and the community that we live in. This place is hard to beat.

And yet, on a daily basis there are children in our own back yard that are being abused/neglected/or abandoned by parents and caregivers who are supposed to love and nurture them so they can grow into healthy productive people. We all have a stake in what these children become.

If you consider that they are tomorrows workforce, your own children’s future partners, people who are going to continue to make north Idaho a place that people are drawn to not only because it is beautiful, but because it is a great place to grow up and raise a family. It is our responsibility to meet the needs of the children.

The CASA program has been in the 1st Judicial District for 15 years, we know that we will receive over one hundred referrals by the end of year. Those children will range in age from birth to 17 and we know the majority are younger than 12. There is a national trend that the victims we represent are less than 2 years old. We cannot let these kids down.

CASA provides a voice for all victims, especially the younger ones, within the court system. Our referrals always come from child protective services, our volunteers independently investigate the situation by interviewing anyone involved, visit the children and the homes where they live or will live, then submit their written recommendations to the judge and may be asked to testify on behalf of the child.

All of our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews are growing up with, going to school with, and working with children or adults that may have come from terrible backgrounds, so part of our obligation is to have compassion for those individuals that are currently experiencing abuse or neglect or are recovering from abuse and neglect.

We all have an investment that we can commit to today to do everything we can individually and as parents, groups we belong to, people that we work with and get involved in addressing the needs of these kids. I hope that you will find a way, whether it is to volunteer as a CASA, to make a donation of time or money to CASA, or any service in the community that directly impacts the lives of these kids and their families.

We all need to work together in changing a life of hurt into hope, and one day the children will thank us.

When you ask a CASA volunteer about their experience, you will hear the words heart-wrenching, challenging, sad, frustrating, exhilarating, encouraging, and bitter-sweet. However, when you take a look at the victims, the vulnerable children, what they experience is inconceivable.

Imagine this, your mother is addicted to methamphetamine and is usually high or passed out. There are strangers coming and going in your home, eating your food, being mean to your mom, touching you in places you don’t want to be touched, making a mess that you have to clean up. You take care of your little sister, feeding her, bathing her, and making sure she is safe, and then… the police come, raid your house, and you have to leave all of your toys, your clothes, your house, your mom, and might never see them again. And by the way, you are 9 and your sister is 2.

Or, imagine that you go to school and other kids make fun of you because you do not smell very good, your clothes are dirty and have holes in them. You get into fights easily and are told you are a very angry child. Then you go home and tell your parents that you got into trouble at school. The beating is done with a belt, no dinner, and you are grounded…where can you run to get away from the hurt? Where is it safe?

As you think about how awful these scenarios are, imagine one more. You and your sister are already victims of abuse and neglect. You have been taken away from your mother for her drug use and failure to protect you; so you have to start visiting your father. He takes advantage of you, bad touches instead of good. You can still remember how good touches used to feel. Your feelings hurt because he says if you tell anyone then you really do not love him. You disclose to your foster parents, social worker, and CASA that this has been going on. Ultimately, you end up in the courtroom, testifying to the judge and jury about what your father has done, as he sits there with his angry face, swearing at you, threatening you, scaring you, again. You see your father in hand cuffs and an orange suit, your stomach hurts and feels queasy, trying to figure out what it all means, and what might happen next. Does this mean I really don’t love Daddy? Does he really not love me?

The children are ultimate survivors, victims of Mom or Dad’s poor choices, victims of an over worked social service system, and sometimes victims of a seemingly unfair judicial process. As a CASA volunteer you are there for the child, to speak for the child who can not protect or speak for him or herself. Your voice is what protects them when their own tiny voice can’t be heard. As a CASA volunteer, you have an incredibly unique opportunity to influence where that child ends up. While the ultimate decision is the judges, you, as the only party who is working on one case at a time, and the only person whose recommendation is not being paid for, may be the best chance that child will have. That child deserves to be loved and nurtured, free from fear, free from adult responsibilities, free to laugh and love and learn how to be a good parent themselves some day. Are you willing to accept the challenge? And if not you, then who?